Video shows trainer Sean O'Malley talking to Aljamain Sterling during title fight, Sterling responds

There may be more to Sean O'Malley's knockout win over Aljamain Sterling than previously thought.

At UFC 292, O'Malley challenged Sterling for the bantamweight title and delivered one of the best performances of his career, stopping Sterling with strikes early in the second round. Sterling subsequently attributed the loss to him trying to have an exciting fight instead of focusing on winning, but this may also have been due to some of the skill of O'Malley's team.

On Wednesday, new footage of O'Malley's knockout emerged, showing his head trainer Tim Welch calling Sterling during the fight and telling Sterling, “Aljo, it's time for you to go!” moments before the now former champion attacked him and took the blow that ended the fight.

It is not illegal to talk to opposing fighters during a fight, and if a trainer can convince an opposing fighter to act stupid, that will obviously be a great outcome for his fighter.

However, Sterling disputes that anything similar happened in this case.

“Lol, people try to make something out of bullshit. Short answer. Not at all.”

“Exactly. What these posts are trying to point out is that they are comedic. I should probably sell some sneakers with a waist belt and convince them to buy them too.”

Of course, when it comes to Sterling and O'Malley, things can't be that simple. Sterling's teammate and O'Malley's next opponent Merab Dvalishvili chimed in to add his two cents about the champion and his coach, which then began an extensive exchange between Sterling, Welch and O'Malley.

“I'll smash O'Malley inside the cage and then I'll smash his coach outside the cage.”

“Are you that angry that I said your nose is your big brother?”

“Bro, don’t even fight and talk nonsense anymore, chasing influence. This shit might make you slap both cheeks, Diddy. Let your fighter talk shit, you don't throw out Jimmy Neutron anymore.”

“I never said any nonsense? Statement of facts and talk of nonsense are two different things.”

“Cap. You were talking some stupid shit during my fight with Shawn. The referee had to tell you to stop doing it several times. I wanted to slap you between rounds and I regret not taking a fine for it. You should know better as an ex fighter and current trainer. You talk shit about merab all the time. Let Shawn talk shit, you don't have to get involved in that shit talk unless you want trouble too, bro.”

“I always say good things about Merab because I know how dangerous he is. I was asked in an interview what we were going to target and his nose is one of the things and I don't mind a little dust here and there. Good mood to you all.

“This is great for FIGHTERS BRO. Not a coach. You crossed the line several times, so Merab said he would fight you too. The same thing when we almost fought with Cejudo’s team. They were talking nonsense as if they were fighting. You are being honest. That's all I'm saying.”

“I will break your best friend after I beat you. Oh wait, nvm already did that.”

“You held (Henry Cejudo) for 15 minutes. 0 amazing.”

“You are a pathetic champion. Continue to show off your handicap wrestling to give yourself the best chance of winning. You are not a real man, my guy. Don’t try to dodge the number 1 contender again to fight number 15 this time or some other pointless and meaningless fight.”

“Congratulations to him this evening. If he had lost to me after interfering with the fight, I would have felt very sorry for him. This is why I was never offered a rematch clause BEFORE signing the contract or even after the fight. Facts are facts, bro. Stay in your lane.

Be that as it may, Welch himself does not believe that his conversation with Sterling played any role in O'Malley winning the bantamweight title.

“Sugar's accuracy and ability to throw back punches won him this fight, and my lip service had nothing to do with it.”

There's obviously still a lot of bad blood between the two camps from the fight that took place almost a year ago, especially since Sterling has since moved up to 145 pounds and scored a big win over Calvin Kattar at UFC 300, while O'Malley defended his bantamweight title against contender Marlon Vera at UFC 299. Luckily, the two sides will get a chance to finally square off later this year when O'Malley and Dvalishvili finally fight.