Aljamain
Sterling believes he isn’t getting an immediate rematch against
Sean
O’Malley, but he thinks O’Malley may not hold the title for
long anyway.
Advertisement
The former
Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight king lost his strap
to O’Malley by second-round TKO in an upset at UFC 292 in August.
Since then, Sterling has since been calling for either an immediate
rematch or for his close friend and teammate Merab
Dvalishvili to get his own his long overdue title shot.
However, O’Malley is plotting his first title defense against
Marlon
Vera, who handed “Sugar” his lone professional loss back in
2020 and rumors have recently surfaced of a potential booking
between O’Malley and “Chito” for UFC 297 on Jan. 20 in Toronto.
In a live stream on his YouTube page on Monday, Sterling revealed
that he is almost sure of a rematch snub against O’Malley. The
34-year-old “Funkmaster” also believes Vera will pull off an upset
against O’Malley, whose knockout power he called into question
despite the result of their fight. Sterling doesn’t see Vera
rushing into potential fight-ending shots from O’Malley the way he
did.
“I’m predicting an upset. Chito’s gonna beat Sean again,” Sterling
said. “O’Malley is not a knockout artist… I ran into the shot the
same way I did with Marlon
Moraes. [If] I don’t run into the shot [and] he hits me with
the shot, I’m still standing… He’s not one punching ‘Chito’ unless
‘Chito’ was to run forward the same way I did and get sniped. It’s
not happening. ‘Chito’ stands in the same spot and he’s gonna sit
there, be patient, walk him down, hands up, throw those long
kicks.”