During the main event at UFC 306 last September, referee Herb Dean briefly paused the fight between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley when Dvalishvili reacted to O`Malley’s head coach, Tim Welch, shouting instructions across the octagon.
This tactic had been previously used by Welch, notably when O`Malley won the bantam weight title against Aljamain Sterling. Dean issued a warning to the coach during the UFC 306 bout. Despite Welch`s continued shouting, Dvalishvili largely controlled the five-round fight and ultimately became the UFC champion.
Following the fight, Dvalishvili`s head coach, John Wood, expressed respect for Welch but characterized his actions as a “bullshit move.”
Now, Dvalishvili and O’Malley are set for a rematch headlining UFC 316 on June 7 in Newark, N.J. Since this event is under a different commission than their previous Las Vegas encounter, Wood intends to inform the referee beforehand about the potential for Welch`s shouting. While he doesn`t believe it will actually distract Merab, Wood wants to avoid any surprises.
“Of course, we’ll have that talk,” Wood stated. “Of course, it will be brought up [to the referee] and I think Tim will do it again. But feel free to talk to Merab all you want. It just gave him more motivation. So I’m good.”
Wood added, “Tell Merab what you want him to do and he’ll go ahead and do it. It didn’t work [last time]. It’s not going to work again. I’ve stated this before, whatever you’ve got to do to get your fighter up for the game, whatever you think you’ve got to do as a coach to try and take advantage, do it.”
Although rules generally prohibit coaches from shouting at the opposing fighter, Wood doesn`t anticipate the referee taking drastic action against Welch should he employ the tactic at UFC 316.
Wood himself understands the pursuit of every competitive advantage but assures he would not resort to such actions to help Dvalishvili defend his title.
“I actually think that’s a rule, you’re not supposed to do that,” Wood commented. “But I mean the old saying, ‘If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.’ I would never have to feel I would have to talk to Sean or anybody else Merab is fighting to get an advantage. So go ahead. If it gets you more hits or more clicks on your podcast or your TikTok or whatever those guys do, then great for you. He got a lot of play off of that.”
He continued, “I don’t feel or never would feel I need to do any of that stuff for Merab or any of my fighters. But again, there’s a lot of people that have had successful careers and cheated a lot and I’m not saying that Tim’s cheating — maybe bending the rules.”
Wood clarifies that he has no personal issues with either Welch or O’Malley, even if shouting at an opponent is technically against the rules. He simply questions the necessity of such a tactic between two elite competitors, viewing it as an unnecessary distraction.
“I think Tim’s a good coach. I like Tim personally,” Wood said. “I don’t take any offense to it. Do I think it’s stupid? Absolutely but I guess maybe they think that it worked for the [Aljamain Sterling] fight so it’s something we’re going to keep doing then go ahead.”
He concluded, “But we’ll talk to the referees about it but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem in any way, shape or form.”
Speaking more broadly, Wood expressed a belief that referees should enforce rules more stringently during fights, extending beyond the coaching issue.
He cited common fouls like illegal groin strikes and eye pokes, which are frequently called but rarely result in a point deduction. This lack of consistent penalty is something Wood struggles to understand.
“To speak on the penalties, the referees always tell you in the back ‘this is your first hard warning, if you do it once, I’m taking a point.’ No one ever takes a point,” Wood lamented. “You’ve basically got to rip somebody’s eyeball out or kick their nuts off to even get a point [deducted]. You kick somebody in the balls four times and then maybe they’re talking about it.”
Wood concluded his thoughts on officiating by acknowledging the difficulty of the job. “There’s a lot of stuff with the judging criteria, the reffing criteria and I’m not knocking on the refs. The refs got the hardest job in the world. The referees, I feel bad for them, the shit they have to go through.”
Wesley Dunham 
Marcus Blakely