Aljamain
Sterling rolled the dice on the supposed star power of Sean
O’Malley but came away unimpressed.
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Sterling (23-4) lost his strap to O’Malley (17-1) via second-round
knockout in the main event at UFC 292 in August, for which he
received a share of the pay-per-view sales, and those figures were
apparently disappointing. Without revealing the exact figure,
Sterling said on his YouTube channel:
“I got the pay-per-view numbers, and me and her were going through
it, and I’m just like, ‘These are the numbers that this guy was
trying to say he’s this big pay-per-view star?’ I’m just like, ‘Oh
my God.’ When I saw the numbers, I literally said to her, ‘If I had
any idea this is what the numbers would have been, if I could have
predicted that this is what it would have been, my ass would have
waited and taken my vacation then.’”
Sterling’s clash against O’Malley came three months after a
successful title defense against Henry
Cejudo at UFC 288. Sterling claims he made quick turnaround
expecting the biggest payday of his life considering his opponent
is touted as one of the biggest stars of the sport today. The
former champ added:
“I rolled the dice. I trusted that the bag was going to be this
blow-me-away kind of thing, bigger than all the other ones. It
wasn’t. With that being said, it is what it is. I’m still happy I
made some extra money. I had a really good year. I can’t complain
about that. Life’s good. I can take care of myself. I can take care
of my family.”
Sterling has since decided to move up to featherweight, where he
lobbied for a fight against former champ Max
Holloway but will instead face Calvin
Kattar at UFC 300 on April 13 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las
Vegas.