Aljamain
Sterling is confident regarding the outcome of a rematch with
Sean O’Malley.
Advertisement
O’Malley dethroned Sterling via second-round knockout in the main
event at UFC
292in August 2023. “Sugar” has since defended his strap via a
unanimous decision win over Marlon Vera
at UFC
299 this past March.
Meanwhile, Sterling scored a unanimous decision win over Calvin
Kattar at UFC
300 in his featherweight debut last month. “Funkmaster” claims
he didn’t have the best camp for the O’Malley fight due to a quick
turnaround from a unanimous decision win over Henry
Cejudo in May 2023. Sterling also noted that O’Malley had
nearly a year to prepare, sitting on the sidelines since a
split-decision win over Petr Yan in
October 2022.
Sterling is confident that he would beat O’Malley in a rematch
given he gets as much time as “Sugar” got for his first title
defense against “Chito.”
“I had to take a month off for my Henry Cejudo fight cause my shins
was so beaten up. ‘Oh, but Sean had busted ribs.’ He didn’t have
busted ribs coming into training camp,” Sterling told Kanpai Media
(via Championship Rounds). “The guy had 10 months off
before his [Petr] Yan fight to prepare for either myself or Henry
Cejudo. He beat Yan, and then he got to sit and wait as if he was
the champion. Then I get told as the champion ‘you have to turn
around and cut all that weight again.’
“And again, O’Malley showed up that night. It was an off night for
myself and the better man won that night. But I do know if I had a
rematch and as long he waited, from August to fighting ‘Chito’ in
March. Give me that time to recover, prepare and to cut my weight
the proper way. In a rematch, I would bet my life savings on that.
But people are gonna say I’m so salty. I’m like, ‘Yo skills are
skills, facts are facts.’”
With Sterling now at 145 pounds, training partner Merab Dvalishvili
is expected to receive the next title shot against O’Malley.