Tim Welch is still confident Sean O'Malley can beat UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili.

Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) dethroned O’Malley to become champion at UFC 306, and successfully defended his title in a unanimous decision win over Umar Nurmagomedov in Saturday’s UFC 311 co-main event in Inglewood, Calif.

Both Welch and O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) were in attendance for the fight, and Welch was impressed with Dvalishvili’s cardio, which helped him rally late to beat Nurmagomedov.

“Umar came out there, stayed mostly southpaw, was throwing some sharp 1-2s in the beginning, and looking sharp,” Welch said on his YouTube channel. “And Merab, fourth, fifth round, just started taking over. You could tell after that fourth round, Umar was seriously gassed. He was really tired. He did a good job wrestling. Merab was shooting a ton and Umar was doing a great job at stuffing all of his shots.

“If he did hit his butt, he’d hit his butt just for a second, pop right up. But Merab just kept that pace, kept that cardio on him – and he’s got some cardio, I’ll tell you that. (He) came out in the fifth round, kept pressuring him, and that last 30 seconds of the fight I think really made Merab win the fight.”

O’Malley was largely outgrappled in the majority of his fight against Dvalishvili, but was able to hurt him with a body kick in Round 5. It was later revealed that O’Malley went into his fight with a torn left labrum in his hip, and Welch thinks they’d put up a better fight in a rematch.

“He’s a problem. He’s a big problem,” Welch continued on Dvalishvili. “But I do believe that we could be the Kryptonite to Merab with the right game plan and a good fight camp. With ‘Suga’ healthy, I think we take him out. And we’ll find out, now won’t we?”

Dvalishvili, who’s unbeaten in his past 12 fights, said he’s open to running things back with O’Malley for his next title defense.

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