Aljamain Sterling is putting the notion to rest that a fight with Sean O’Malley is easy.
Aljamain Sterling is doing a little research about his probable next opponent Sean O’Malley. Both Sterling and O’Malley won their respective fights at UFC 280 and ultimately set themselves on a crash course with each other. Sterling was able to pull off the win over TJ Dillashaw for his second bantamweight title defense. He showed the world in that fight that he is the true champion and he plans of being the champ for a long time. O’Malley defeated the number one ranked Petr Yan that night and put himself right in title contention.
Although there are several different options for Sterling’s next test, including Marlon Vera and Henry Cejudo, O’Malley would be a fan-favorite option. He has been rising up the division and is now sitting in the number one spot on the rankings and he is now able to make a case for the next shot. Sterling seems to be preparing for this option and recently broke down the fight between O’Malley and Yan on his YouTube Channel.
Aljamain Sterling is not overestimating Sean O’Malley
O’Malley may be young and not have much experience with ranked opponents, but that does not mean that Sterling is planning an easy win over the up-and-comer. He knows that O’Malley’s skillset is something to be taken seriously and if the fight is set, he will be doing his homework beforehand.
“Now people are saying that this fight would be super easy,” he explained. “This would not be a super easy fight for me with O’Malley. Don’t get it twisted. Don’t think just because I did what I did and Yan took him down that you guys think that it’s going to be easy. You have to get to those positions. If I can get to a dominant position, then it would be easier but you have to close the gap on a guy who’s so much longer than I am. And he’s got the leverage again, all O’Malley needs to do is turn to his knees, but he’ll give up his back. Yeah, so he’s got to make sure he’s quick but it’d be hard for me to take them down. The same way Yan took them down he was able to get his hands down and was pretty much able to get back up not that different. Not too much of a difficult way of getting back up to his feet.”
O’Malley has been pushing for the champ next, but the UFC and Dana White have been pushing for Cejudo to take on Sterling. The former two-division champion Cejudo has not fought since 2020 but is planning his comeback which could be a difficult test for Sterling as well.
