Sean O’Malley is ready to send Aljamain Sterling right out of the division.
The UFC bantamweight division is an exciting one right now. Champion Aljamain Sterling is slowly making the fans see just how talented he is and with every title defense, he climbs the list of bantamweight GOATS. Sterling is fresh off his most recent title defense when he defeated former champion Henry Cejudo at UFC 288. That fight was one that interested many fans. Sterling has been criticized throughout his title reign and now that he holds a win over a former two-division champion he is finally getting the respect he deserves. Even the man who will face his next is giving him some props.
The UFC has announced that number one contender Sean O’Malley will be the next challenger for Sterling. He spoke with Brendan Schaub on his YouTube channel about his upcoming opponent.
“I do think that stylistically, Henry is an easier fight for me, not that Aljo is an easy fight by any means but I do think he’s a lot less dangerous,” he said. “Aljo is one of the greatest bantamweights of all time with his resume right now and current fighting is just different than back in the day. I think Aljo is the best bantamweight right now so me going out there and beating him will be massive. It will be huge.”
Sean O’Malley wants to send Aljamain Sterling to the featherweight division
Sterling has been toying with the idea of leaving the bantamweight division for good. He has now defended his belt three times and wants to make a move to featherweight. He has a good friend and training partner, Merab Dvalishvili waiting in the wings and wants to give him a go at the bantamweight title. They have stated that they will not fight each other so Sterling will have to either lose or step down for that to happen. O’Malley is willing to help with this.
“August 19, in Boston, is kind of what we’re thinking. That’s what I’m planning for. I’m going to slowly start getting into camp 14 weeks out, 15 weeks out pretty much, four months,” he said. “You know, people are like, Oh, that’s too quick of a turnaround. Not really, he doesn’t have any serious injuries, he has plenty of time. Take a couple of months off. Two months training camp. That’s plenty. So, yeah, I don’t think that’s too fast for the turnaround. I think that’ll be perfect. Especially if he wants to go to 45, I’ll send his ass up to 45, he go fight back on the prelims.”
O’Malley has been on the sidelines since his last fight back in October of last year. He was waiting for this fight between Sterling and Cejudo to happen before he made any plans. That fight took longer to make than was expected but now he wants to move it along and get Sterling in the Octagon by the end of the summer.
