The UFC 306 main event between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili featured unusual moments including Dvalishvili screaming at O’Malley’s coach, a rule misunderstanding about callouts, and Dvalishvili kissing O’Malley during the fight, leading to confusion and controversy before Dvalishvili ultimately won by unanimous decision.
The Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili UFC 306 main event started like most fights. But then, just seconds in, Dvalishvili began screaming at O’Malley’s head coach Tim Welch, causing a brief halt in the action.
“That really caught me off guard,” Welch shared on O’Malley’s YouTube channel. “We sat down, I was calm. I said, ‘You got to be patient, Merab.’ Then he starts bucking around, almost having a seizure.”
Dvalishvili went on to defeat O’Malley via unanimous decision, capturing the UFC bantamweight title at Sphere this past Saturday.
Welch was thrown off by Dvalishvili’s early reaction. Referee Herb Dean, criticized by the MMA community for his performance, told Welch that coaches can’t yell out the opponent’s name during fights.
“So I didn’t realize there was a rule against calling out the other guy’s name,” Welch explained. “I told Herb some of our callouts include Merab’s name, and he’s like, ‘Nope, nope, nope.’ Didn’t know that. Would love to see that f*cking rule.”
That wasn’t the only weird moment in the fight. At the end of Round 2, Dvalishvili grabbed a front face lock and began kissing O’Malley’s upper back. Dean yelled at Dvalishvili, who then broke the hold and returned to his corner.
Wisely, O’Malley stood up and punched Dvalishvili before the horn sounded. This confused the commentary team and even Aljamain Sterling — who was in Dvalishvili’s corner.
O’Malley plans to take an extended break after the loss. He reacted to the strange moments in the first 10 minutes of the fight.
“I don’t know why the ref stopped the fight,” O’Malley said. “Then he was kissing me. There were like two to three seconds left. Looking back, I’m surprised I knew that. The ref said, ‘Hey, quit kissing him on the back,’ so he got up thinking time was up. Then I juiced him once. I hoped I’d put him out.”
“But Aljo got up like he was about to storm the cage, like I hit him illegally. I don’t think he realized there was time on the clock. The ref didn’t stand you up; he said to quit doing that.”