Tim Welch weighed in on a previous sparring session between UFC champions Sean O’Malley and Alexandre Pantoja.
Bantamweight champ O’Malley and flyweight champ Pantoja have beforehand bickered a few sparring session that allegedly came about in 2017, with every claiming that they bought the higher of the opposite. O’Malley’s model is that he put Pantoja down in Spherical 1 of the session however ultimately drained and bought choked out in Spherical 3.
As Pantoja (27-5 MMA, 11-3 UFC) gears up for his second title protection in opposition to Steve Erceg (12-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 301 headliner, the subject was introduced up once more. Pantoja claimed he smashed O’Malley (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC), who responded by reminding him that he stopped him within the first spherical.
O’Malley’s coach, Welch, chimed in, naturally siding along with his fighter’s model of the story.
“Not likely in battle camp in any respect,” Welch mentioned on his YouTube channel. “Going to sparring possibly to get just a few rounds and Henry (Cejudo’s) like, ‘Hey, you need to spar this man?’ So Sean says, ‘Yeah, I’ll spar him.’ They spar one spherical, Sean comes out off the rip, places him down. Places him down within the first minute. Now thoughts you that is – I don’t even bear in mind what yr that is.
“I don’t even suppose Sean was knowledgeable but. He may need been knowledgeable simply breaking in. …Sean comes on the market, bounces round, younger buck. Growth, hits him with a liver shot, places him down. Pantoja has to cease. He has to wave it off. He has to go over to Henry, kneel down, name it off. I imply, there’s a video – by no means launched video, however he places him down.”
UFC 301 (Pay-per-view/ESPN/ESPN+) takes place Saturday at Rio Area in Rio de Janeiro.
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