Coach Takes 'A Lot of the Blame' for Sean O’Malley’s Loss Against Marlon Vera

Tim Welch admittedly accepts most of the blame for Sean O'Malley’s lone career loss against Marlon Vera. But the ankle wraps his fighter wore in the bout also share some of the responsibility.

O’Malley suffered a stoppage loss against Vera in 2020 after a leg kick from “Chito” compromised his lead leg. “Sugar” refuses to acknowledge the loss to this day, dismissing the kick as a fluke strike that damaged his peroneal nerve.

O’Malley’s coach, however, believes other factors contributed to the damaged nerve. According to Welch, minutes before the fight, O’Malley had complained twice about his ankle wraps being too tight. While they made small adjustments, Welch believes they were still too tight, which stopped the blood flow to O’Malley’s leg.

“I got to take a lot of the blame on this,” Welch said on his YouTube channel channel. “One of the UFC people wrapped his ankles, and a couple times – ‘Sugar’ usually never complains about anything — a couple times he said ‘This ankle wrap is too tight.’ He said it twice. So, after the second time, I had the guys cut a little bit on the top, cut a little bit on the ankle, and I thought for sure it would loosen up. We were done with our warmup, they said we were walking in five minutes, so we did feel a little rushed. Looking back, 100%, I should’ve said ‘Hey, take that wrap off, and let’s re-do it. The fight can wait, let’s re-do this wrap’ because if you’ve ever had your ankle wrapped too tight, the blood just can’t flow to it, and it feels like your foot is literally falling asleep. So, imagine being in a fistfight and your foot is fully asleep.”

After winning the bantamweight title against Aljamain Sterling, O’Malley sought to avenge his loss against Vera in his first title defense, which earned him some criticism. Nevertheless, O’Malley puts his strap on the line against Vera in the main event at UFC 299 at the Kaseya Center in Miami on Saturday.

“This fight was four years ago. And I tell you what, this is a completely different kid than he is now,” Welch said of the rematch. “Now he's a got a lot more explosiveness to him. He's got a lot more muscle, he’s got a lot more durability and now he’s way more efficient with his energy. He knows how explosive he is, and if you’re not careful, then you can run out of juice quick. So, confidence wise, now ‘Sugar’ is a whole different animal, and we can't wait to get this back. We can't wait to get this back.”