- Sean O’Malley opened up about fighting Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 with a rib injury
- “Sugar” is confident a boxing match with Gervonta Davis will come to fruition
Sean O’Malley may have seemed tremendously in shape when he stopped Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 but the new bantamweight king revealed that he went inside the cage with an injury. And now that he’s already an MMA champion, “Sugar” also wants to test the waters with a boxing match against Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Victorious even with an Injury
Speaking to reporters in his post-UFC 292 press conference, O’Malley shockingly admitted that the last thing he ever wanted to happen was Sterling pounding him on the ground because he has been dealing with a muscle strain under his rib.
“Dude, I haven’t grappled in six weeks. I had a muscle strain and I literally couldn’t grapple in six weeks, couldn’t MMA spar. I was the main event in Boston. There was no shot I was pulling out, but we haven’t grappled in six weeks. Six weeks from today I got a muscle strain right under my rib,” O’Malley said. “I couldn’t grapple. So, coming into this fight against Aljo, every interview I was saying ‘it was life or death. I cannot get taken down.’ It was because I didn’t know if this would hold up.”
“And It’s f**king sore right now. I don’t know if it’s from a kick or just the little bit of grappling that we did. It’s not super painful but you could definitely feel it. Dealing with those mental demons coming into this fight knowing I was injured-ish – we didn’t grapple one day the last six weeks, didn’t grapple the whole fight week,” he added.
Sean says Davis boxing match will happen like his UFC 292 win happened
O’Malley is well aware of that he has now reached higher heights in MMA and would like to make a super fight with Davis come to reality. According to “Sugar,” people may not take it seriously at the moment but a boxing match with the multi-division world champion “will happen” just like how he kept his word when he called his UFC championship win.
“I also wouldn’t mind knocking out Gervonta Davis. I know people are going to go, ‘Ah, you want to be Conor [McGregor].’ [But] I’m telling you, that fight is going to happen,” O’Malley pointed out. “I would love to go out there and box him. I feel like it could happen sooner than later, but I also know the UFC is down to get behind stuff like that if it’s big enough. With that performance, we are getting close. Maybe I have to go out there, win a couple more fights and win a belt.”
“I don’t know if he’s even considered a big enough star for the UFC to let that happen, but it will happen. I said this was going to happen years ago and I got so much sh*t for saying, ‘I’m going to be champ. I’m going to be the next big star.’ I got so much hate for it but look at me now,” he added.
While it is apparent that O’Malley is eager to discuss a boxing match with “Tank,” Sterling, meanwhile, is already calling for an immediate rematch.
