We’ve witnessed our fair share of corner disasters and iconic moments inside the Octagon. From the bizarre Travis Browne vs. Fabricio Werdum bout—where Browne’s coach bizarrely urged a finish while he was clearly losing—to the unforgettable rallying cry in Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman that turned the tide, corners have played pivotal roles. One more such moment came at UFC 306, when Tim Welch told Sean O’Malley, “We’re almost done,” despite O’Malley being outclassed. Welch faced heavy backlash for the comment, but a year later, O’Malley has finally shed light on what his coach truly meant.

While having a conversation with Demetrious Johnson on his podcast, Sean O’Malley was asked about that bizarre corner moment. Johnson was utterly confused as to why Welch would say such words at a moment when they were clearly losing. The former bantamweight champion explained, “I think he was telling me, ‘Hey, there’s five minutes left. Like, there’s only five minutes. We’re almost done. Tough it up—whatever you’re going through, we’re almost done. Like, there’s five minutes left.'”

He further added, “But yeah, he got a lot of [ __ ] for that, I guess. But I mean, even for the Petr Yan fight, he was like, ‘Hey, throw the right hand. Like, feint the right hand, throw the knee up the middle.’ Boom—cuts him. Going into the second round: ‘Hey, feint low, throw the left hand.’ Boom—dropped, rocked Petr. So Tim’s done such a good job in the corner, and that one—I think it just got misinterpreted.”

Sean O’Malley was completely dominated by Merab Dvalishvili in their initial fight. Despite his striking skills, ‘Suga’ failed to get past ‘The Machine’s wrestling and incredible cardio. In the fourth round, Welch uttered words that caught the attention of—and sparked a fire within—the MMA world. Well, after the backlash, Tim Welch came forward to clarify what he meant when he said that.

“It came out the wrong way. I meant to say ‘we’re almost done with this,’ like ‘you’re going to clip him at any time,'” Welch told ESPN. “But also, I’ve known Sean for 12 years. I know what’s going through his mind and keeping him confident. I always forget those cameras are rolling on my mic and stuff. ” Well, a year has passed since that fight, and now Team Suga has the opportunity to reverse their misfortune. Interestingly, Johnson has revealed the golden key formula to defeat ‘The Machine.’

Demetrious Johnson reveals the key to defeating Merab Dvalishvili to Sean O’Malley

Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley will be fighting each other this weekend, and this time, ‘Suga’ is locked in, leaving no stone unturned to ensure he clinches victory over Dvalishvili. He has trained alongside Israel Adesanya as well as Demetrious Johnson for the fight. During their training, as O’Malley and Johnson sparred, one specific technique stood out the most to the former UFC flyweight champion.

In the same conversation, ‘Mighty Mouse’ revealed the one technique that O’Malley could use to help him navigate his way past Dvalishvili. “I was with him and was like ‘You look strong, you look like you put on some muscle on, looks like you’ve been grappling this camp.’ We did 3 rounds, that f—– teep [kick] is dangerous. He hit me with it and I was ‘Oh, that’s your move right there,’ that f—– teep,” said Johnson.

He further added, “When I felt his teep, that’s his ‘bread and butter’ to force me to come across the void and do something. If he’s going to come get me, he’ll teep me and force me to grapple him, or to stifle me. The same move that hurt Merab in the last fight. And I think looking at this fight with him versus Merab. It’s going to come down to, can Sean break the machine? Or does the machine run over Sean? That’s where I think that fight is going to play out.”

Known for his striking, Sean O’Malley did put Merab Dvalishvili in danger in the closing rounds of their initial fight, but it was not enough to defeat him. However, this time, ‘Suga’ is looking to return the favor to ‘The Machine.’ Will he be able to win his belt back? Only time will tell.