Tim Welch did something on his YouTube channel this week that coaches almost never do during a callout cycle. He praised the guy calling out his fighter, admitted the fight would be awesome, and then laid out exactly why it has to wait. I think he’s right. I also think he only gets to be right for about 16 more days.
Here’s the setup. Payton Talbott (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) ran through Deiveson Figueiredo (25-8-1 MMA, 14-8-1 UFC) with a first-round TKO in the UFC 332 co-main event at Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Then he grabbed the mic and called out former bantamweight champ Sean O’Malley (20-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC). Henry Cejudo went around saying nobody wants to fight Talbott. Daniel Cormier went further and basically told O’Malley to quit waiting on a title shot and go fight the kid.
Welch, as you’d expect, had thoughts.
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The Math Favors Waiting
Petr Yan defends the bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili in their trilogy at UFC 333 on Oct. 24. O’Malley beat Yan at UFC 280. So if Yan keeps the belt, Welch figures O’Malley is likely next in line, and that is a pretty reasonable read of how the UFC books rematches.
Welch’s sharpest shot at DC was about money, and it landed. “DC, do you remember back when you were fighting for the title, the pay difference? How much more you’d get paid fighting for the title, the world championship, compared to fighting a No. 11 ranked guy now? I wonder if he remembers that.”
That’s a fair question. Cormier fought for belts. He knows what the paycheck looks like on the other side of a championship walkout. Asking a former champ to pass on a possible title shot so he can fight a rising contender as a favor to the timeline is great television advice and terrible career advice.
I have zero patience for fighters who duck. You know this. But you can’t duck a fight nobody offered you. Welch swore on his father’s life that the UFC never offered the fight, and he said the promotion never brought Talbott’s name to his team a single time. He floated his own theory that the promotion may have mentioned a White House possibility to Talbott and the kid understandably got fired up. That’s Welch speculating, and he was careful to say he wasn’t calling Talbott a liar. Still, if the fight was never on the table, the duck accusations fall apart before anybody even gets to a face-off.
Welch Already Wrote the Promo
The funniest part of all this is that Welch sold Talbott vs. O’Malley better than anyone pushing for it.
“Because Payton, the way he fakes his uppercuts, the way he stutters into his jab, stutters into his one-two, it’s almost like he fights just like ‘Suga.’ Just a titch slower.”
That “titch slower” is the coach getting his dig in, sure, but the rest of it is a love letter. He called Talbott’s style “sick,” said he’s “tricky and composed,” and said the loss to Barcelos “made him level up big time.” Then he said, flat out, “I am a fan of Payton Talbott.” Picture the press conference. Two upright, bouncy, fake-everything strikers, one of whom is the original and one of whom the original’s coach thinks is a slightly slower copy. That’s a mirror match, and I’d pay for it without complaining, which for me is rare.
Welch also had an answer for Cejudo’s claim that nobody wants Talbott. “I guarantee you Marcus (McGhee) would fight Payton Talbott,” he said, adding that McGhee would be “licking his chops for that fight.” So the line of willing opponents apparently exists, and it gives Talbott somewhere to go while the title picture sorts itself out.
Where I Land
If Yan wins on Oct. 24, O’Malley should take the title fight and nobody should give him grief for it. He has the win over Yan, he has the name, and Talbott, who Welch himself noted wasn’t ranked, can keep stacking wins. Another year of seasoning only makes the eventual fight bigger. Rushing your best mirror match before one guy has a number next to his name is how promotions burn good fights.
If Merab wins, though, the excuse disappears, and Welch said so himself. “If Petr loses, dude, ‘Suga’ vs. Payton Talbott is a sick, sick f*cking fight, dude.”
I’m holding him to that one. If Dvalishvili leaves UFC 333 with the belt and the O’Malley camp suddenly starts shopping for a different name, or another big-money detour, I’ll be the first one yelling about it. Welch put the date on the calendar. On Oct. 24 we find out whether he meant it.
