If there’s one fighter who stands head and shoulder above the others on social media presence, it’s Sean O’Malley. However, the former bantamweight champion has moved away from these platforms. It might have come as a surprise to many people. His coach Tim Welch discussed the reasons behind it. For starters, it might make sense.

Tim Welch claims the current state of the UFC’s bantamweight division is challenging. In order to excel against those top five fighters, Sean O’Malley has decided to center his focus on fighting. Moreover, social media is a lot of work according to Welch, and could harm his ambitions to get back into title contention after dropping the belt at UFC 306.

“He’s worked so hard for years on these socials and you’d be surprised, like, the amount of money he makes is crazy. But it’s like, right now… to win in this top 5, it’s like, you’ve got to be focused on your training,” Tim Welch told ‘Submission Radio’. “Being creative on Instagram and being creative on Snapchat and being creative on YouTube… Your mind’s thinking about all this stuff. It takes more energy than you think.”

The real reason behind this change in Sean O’Malley’s mindset is his lackluster outing in the one-sided affair against Merab Dvalishvili. If it had been otherwise where ‘Suga’ would score a flashy knockout, he would have stuck to his normal antics. Nevertheless, Welch claims O’Malley is trying to learn from his mistakes to get to the level up as a fighter.

“That loss to Merab, it’s almost like it needed to happen. It needed to happen to just open up this new level of focus for him. But if he’d have knocked out Merab in the first round, then who knows? We’d have been doing the same thing,” Sean O’Malley’s coach added.

“Every single person wants you on their podcast, every single person wants you to come to their party. Celebs, athletes, they’re messaging you, want to hang out… So for him to put it down… he needs to do that and it’s going to be able to take him to the next level.”

As he prepares for his 2025 comeback, Sean O’Malley recently traveled to Japan to witness some Rizin FF action. There, the former UFC bantamweight revealed his upcoming plans, including a possible scenario for his next fight.

Sean O’Malley “Ideally” prefers fighting Merab Dvalishvili over Umar Nurmagomedov

Japanese MMA giants Rizin Fighting Federation summed up 2024 with their Rizin 49: Decade PPV and Sean O’Malley attended the event as he celebrated the New Year in the land of the rising sun. The massive 22-fight card had some exciting showcases, and unexpectedly, O’Malley spoke to the media during the post-fight press conference. ‘Suga’ revealed that he’s looking for a rematch against Merab Dvalishvili in his next fight for the title, preferably.

However, if it comes to fighting Umar Nurmagomedov, he won’t shy away from that challenge. “Ideally Merab beats Umar and I get the rematch, but if it has to be Umar, that’s what I want next is a title fight, hopefully mid-next year, so the winner of that one is coming up very, very soon,” Sean O’Malley stated.

Even Tim Welch appears to agree with that notion.

With UFC 311 around the corner, we’re just days away from getting to know who Sean O’Malley could end up fighting in his comeback bout. But in the meantime, it remains to be seen if his decision to step out of the social media limelight remains temporary or a permanent move.

Let us know what you think in the comments down below.