"I wanted to slap you" - Aljamain Sterling gets into online war of words with Sean O'Malley's coach after corner footage emerges

Aljamain Sterling recently got into a war of words with Sean O'Malley's coach on social media after some previously unseen footage of their UFC 292 bantamweight title fight emerged. The video showed coach Tim Welch shouting at Sterling to charge forward just before O'Malley finished him.

For context, O'Malley challenged Sterling for the 135-pound title at UFC 292 and put on an awe-inspiring striking display to secure a second-round TKO victory. Sterling later speculated that he lost the fight because he tried to make the contest exciting instead of focusing on winning.

In a recently emerged social media video, Welch could be seen cage-side shouting, "Aljo, you've got to go," right before Sterling charged forward and got caught by O'Malley's right hand. However, Sterling soon dismissed being distracted by Welch's shouting in an X post.

Sterling's close friend Merab Dvalishvili soon jumped in and vowed to avenge his training partner. In an X post, Dvalishvili wrote:

"I will smash O’Malley inside the cage and then smash his coach outside of the cage."

Welch took to the post's comments section and asked Dvalishvili:

"Are you that mad I said your nose is big brother?"

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Aljamain Sterling and Tim Welch continue their social media back and forth

After Tim Welch responded to Merab Dvalisihvili's tweet, Aljamain Sterling shared the coach's post and slammed him for trash-talking without even being an active fighter. In an X post, the former bantamweight champion referenced the popular cartoon 'Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius' and wrote:

"Bro don't even fight anymore and be talking sh*t, clout chasing. That sh*t might get both ya ch**ks clapped Ya Diddy. Let your fighter talk sh*t; you don’t scrap anymore, Jimmy Neutron."

Check out the tweet below:

Screenshot from @funkmasterMMA on X

Responding to Sterling's post, Welc denied "talking sh*t" and defended himself by claiming he was "stating facts" and not trash-talking. However, Sterling wasn't having any of it and pointed out that Welch hashed out jibes during his fight against O'Malley at UFC 292.

Sharing Welch's tweet again, 'Funk Master' stated that he regretted not slapping his opponent's coach in between rounds and wrote:

"Cap. You talked hella sh*t during my fight with Sean. The ref had to tell you to stfu multiple times. I wanted to slap you in between rounds and I regret not taking the fine for that... You constantly talk sh*t about Merab. Let Sean talk sh*t, you don’t need to be chiming in on the sh*t talk unless you want the problems as well."

Check out the tweet below:

Screenshot from @funkmasterMMA on X

Finally, O'Malley's head coach refuted Sterling's claims and clarified that he always spoke highly of Dvalishvili's fighting abilities. However, he admitted that he had taken shots at the Georgian's nose in the spirit of banter and it was all in "good fun" and nothing more.

Given the bad blood between the two teams, fans will undoubtedly look forward to when Dvalishvili goes up against O'Malley for the bantamweight title sometime later this year.