UFC champion Aljamain Sterling is not too worried about his next opponent, Sean O’Malley.
Over the past several years the UFC bantamweight division has been dominated by champion Aljamain Sterling. Sterling may have the most haters of any champion in the UFC right now. He is often criticized for the way he won the UFC belt, off of a disqualification from Petr Yan but has now proven that he is the man to beat at 135 pounds. Sterling recently defeated former two-division champion Henry Cejudo in the main event of UFC 288. With that win, he is already lined up with his next opponent, number one contender Sean O’Malley.
O’Malley has one of the biggest followings in all of the UFC. He is a fan favorite with an exciting fighting style and now that he is the number one contender fans will finally get to see him up against his biggest challenge when he takes on Sterling later this year. Sterling knows that O’Malley is a threat to him but is not overly concerned at this time
Aljamain Sterling claims he knows the key to victory against Sean O’Malley
O’Malley has been critical of Sterling in the past. He believes that he is the man that the fans will be coming out to see in the fight later this year. Sterling has now won nine fights in a row and defended the title three times. He is looking at the match with O’Malley as a chance to prove the haters wrong. He spoke about this on The MMA Hour.
“What’s this guy gonna do to me, like really? I’m not trying to be disrespectful. It’s a subtle jab, but it’s the truth,” he said. “I mean, it’s a fight but at the end of the day, I think we all know what his kryptonite is. And it’s unproven in the Octagon. We see him one time on his back and he was like, a fish out on land, and Chito, smash him and sent him home.”
O’Malley has only lost one fight in his UFC career against Marlon “Chito” Vera. Sterling is taking a look at what Vera did in that fight and believes he has a plan to follow in Vera‘s footsteps and defeat O’Malley.
“I think Chito might have hit him one time and his eyes rolled back in the back of his head. And I’m like, that’s not a good sign. And he’s got a tiny head. He’s tall. He talks about my weight, but he’s skinny. He’s a twig. And he’s got a really tiny head. I got a tiny head too. But he got hit one time, and he was out. So it lets me have a little bit more confidence. I mean, I don’t think you could develop a chin over time,” he said. “What are people gonna say when I beat this guy now? I think people are gonna have to start realizing that I am as good as I say I am and that’s it.”
O’Malley has claimed that the fight will be taking place in August in Boston, Massachusetts. Sterling, who just fought earlier this month believes that may be too quick of a turnaround but is open to the idea.
