Tim Welch knows it won’t be easy for Sean O’Malley to finish Song Yadong.
Former bantamweight champion O’Malley (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) takes on Song (22-8-1 MMA, 11-3-1 UFC) at UFC 324 on Jan. 24 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Paramount+).
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Welch sees the fight going in similar to fashion to O’Malley’s striking clinic over Marlon Vera at UFC 299, even though he acknowledges that Song perhaps poses a bigger threat.
“We’re planning for a 15-minute brutal war,” Welch told Home of Fight. “He’s similar to (Marlon) ‘Chito’ (Vera). He’s way faster than Chito. He’s got more spring to Chito. He’s a little bit more dangerous. He can KO you for sure. Again, Sug’s a KO artist. When you are a KO artist, you go in there and start sitting down on punches and really try and crack people.
“We’re preparing for him to be there for 15 minutes. We are preparing to beat his body up, to cut his face, to punch his head, to potentially choke him, maybe take him down, ride him a little bit. We’re preparing for a 15-minute war. In my heart, I feel like we’re going to whoop his ass for 15 minutes.”
Although O’Malley is coming off back-to-back title losses to Merab Dvalishvili, a win could put him back in the picture now that Petr Yan is UFC bantamweight champion. O’Malley holds a close decision win over Yan at UFC 280.
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“In the back of our minds, for sure that’s a possibility,” Welch said. “I do think that will bring out the best performance for Sean. When that fight happened, he lit up. He saw there’s another opportunity there. But again, careful. Petr Yan for five rounds, we are going to have to be ready for that.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Sean O’Malley’s coach plots ’15-minute brutal war’ at UFC 324
