The first time Tim Welch invited Sean O’Malley to come train with some real pros outside his home state of Montana, things didn’t go so great. This was way before O’Malley was the UFC bantamweight champion, a title he’ll defend at UFC 299 in Miami on Saturday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV). It was before O’Malley was even anything that could reasonably be considered a professional fighter.
Back then he was just a skinny kid who’d gotten to be kind of a big deal on the local circuit in Montana and was looking to broaden his horizons with a quick trip to the MMA Lab in Glendale, Arizona.