Aljamain Sterling is confused by UFC 316 headliner Sean O’Malley‘s star power.
O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) runs things back with Merab Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) in Saturday’s main event (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Sterling lost his bantamweight title to O’Malley at UFC 292, before his teammate Dvalishvili dethroned O’Malley to become champion at UFC 306. “The Funkmaster” previously said his fight with O’Malley didn’t deliver the pay-per-view buys he expected, and that the idea of him being a big star may be a myth.
“I don’t really know his personality outside of when he’s asking me constantly about my weight, or asking other fighters how much they weigh in person,” Sterling told Home of Fight. “That’s always been my interaction with him: ‘How much do you weigh right now?’ So I don’t really have much to go of off.
“I’ve always said his personality was a little dry, in my opinion, and I didn’t really understand the stardom other than his fight skills. He’s a very good fighter. He had a lot of good knockouts and highlights. That’s usually good when you’re fighting not-so-good people.”
O’Malley revealed that he went into his first fight with Dvalishvili with a torn labrum in his hip, which he underwent surgery for after the fight. When Sterling fought O’Malley, it was just three months after he had retained his belt against Henry Cejudo in a five-round battle at UFC 288.
“Isn’t that funny? Isn’t that funny that he’s all of a sudden healthy, but for some reason I was making excuses when we fought, had to turn around (fast) after just going 25 minutes with a former two-division champion?” Sterling said. “You could say whatever you want. I had to take a whole month off just to let my legs heal, and somehow that had no bearing on the fight in his fanbase’s mind.
“But anyone, as a combat sports athlete, understands the game. You have to be mentally ready and physically prepared in order to step in there, so I think it’s perfect timing with the irony. Karma has a way of playing funny games, and now he sees how it feels. Even if he had two good hips, I really don’t think on that day he was beating Merab.”
