Before he coached Sean O'Malley for a UFC championship in 2023, Tim Welch knocked on the door of 'The Ultimate Fighter'.
UFC 316 is just around the corner and Team O'Malley will recapture the title they lost to Merab Dvalishvili in the atmosphere in September.
Dvalishvili defeated Sean O'Malley through a unanimous decision after he exchanged words with O'Malley's head coach Tim Welch Halfbecht on UFC 306.
Welch started coaching O'Malley after his fighting career was won in 2017.
Instead of fighting for a new chance at the UFC, Welch invested in the career of a young 'Suga' Sean, a fellow resident of Montana.
Welch is a veteran with 20 fights with a record of 14-6 who did not receive a callback from Dana White.
Photo by Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Tim Welch lost his fight to get to the house of 'The Ultimate Fighter'
Like many of the previous seasons, season 22 of 'The Ultimate Fighter' reality TV program Jagers compete for a place in the 'Tuf' house, where they would live together while they fought for a UFC contract.
Season 22 was the US versus Europe with Urijah Faber and Conor McGregor as opposite coaches.
In his fight to go into the house, Welch has a great effort against future UFC hunter Jason Gonzales, but lost TKO to the liver via a second round.
Two fights later, Welch thought he was about to have a UFC call.
“When I was 27, I had lost my ultimate hunting fight,” Welch said on Freestylender.
“Dana said Win two more. I won two more. He didn't bring me back,” Welch added.
“So I'm so of it, I'm going to take a third fight …”
Welch's third fight after 'The Ultimate Fighter' would be the last of his career.
Welch had broken his jaw by former Canadian champion Dejan Kajić, who defeated him through the entry in August 2017.
“The first punch of the fight touched me with the uppercut. Boom. And I had something like that, F -. That was a good shot, but it didn't hurt too hard. But then I couldn't close my mouth, so I broke my jaw completely.”
“Clean break, so it's like hanging for that whole first round. I tried to get him down, and I took it down. Second round, I am like, f, guy. There is something seriously wrong …
“And then I lost that fight,” Welch said.
Sean O'Malley says that Tim Welch found his true calling as a coach after he broke his jaw
After the injury and many smoothies for his wired shut jaw, Welch picked up his first student, an 18-year-old Sean O'Malley, future Bantamweight champion in the world.
'Since Sean went down [to Phoenix, Arizona] As a child I was always a kind of his mentor because there are not many people who get a larger show from Montana. And he saw me [Bellator MMA] TV, invited him and we trained for a long time in the lab.
“When he was in Vechtkamp, I would still try to teach him how to eat healthily and teach him how to hydrate and things like that.
Welch heard from the deceased legendary coach Robert Follis and received O'Malley to read books for growth and mentality.
O'Malley credits WELCH as his 'Cheat Code' for his almost flawless fighting career and sees the silver lining between the hardships of a broken jaw injury for a new beginning as one of the most successful MMA coaches in the world.
“Tim, [you were] But meant as a coach, “O'Malley told Welch.
“Like, you literally have experienced everything you have experienced with Robert Follis, all the coaches you have learned from, and then even just breaking your jaw, it is as if you were meant to be in the position you are now.
“Every time I had a fight, he would switch from haunting his goals, do in the UFC to do things to coach me a little, touch mittens, to come up with me on fighting week and teach me all that – to where I didn't have to …
“I still had to go through it and learn and experience things, but I have to take a lot of shortcuts about what not to do, because he did a lot of things wrong.”
“He learned from [his fighting career]”O'Malley said about Welch.
“I didn't have to do wrong. So it was like a cheat code. He literally did all this S – wrong, and then he taught me how I couldn't do it and it was like a cheat code.”
“A bit like Freddie Roach,” said former UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya about Coach Welch.
Freddie Roach is a legendary boxing trainer who went from Pro Fighter to coaching Manny Pacquiao and even UFC legend Georges St-Pierre to world championships.