Actually, the trainer wasn't even whispering. So he clearly did not care if I heard him or not. And I'm positive that he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. I've noticed that they worked one of their other fighters in some fairly heavy sparring only a couple of days before he had a fight, so I cannot completely rule out incompetency on the part of the trainers.

I'm still puzzled as to why that chuckle head did not step in and order the sparring to tone down so I can't say it was not a set up either.