From the moment that he arrived on the roster back in 2017, it was clear that Sean O’Malley would be lined up for big things.
The former UFC bantamweight champion had star quality which would continue to develop if he was able to keep winning inside the Octagon, which he did.
O’Malley doesn’t intend on retiring anytime soon so while he’s going to be around for the foreseeable future, there are huge stakes for him at UFC 316 on June 7.
His opponent, Merab Dvalishvili, believes that this makes O’Malley more dangerous as they prepare to face each other for the second time with the 135 pound title on the line.
Despite the clear popularity of ‘Suga’, a former opponent of his can’t understand why the fans gravitate towards the 30-year-old.
Aljamain Sterling says he always felt like Sean O’Malley’s personality was ‘dry’ despite his star status
In a recent interview with Home of Fight, Aljamain Sterling gave his thoughts on the main event of UFC 316.
Sterling has history with Sean O’Malley, having lost the bantamweight title to ‘Suga’ at UFC 292 before his close friend and teammate, Merab Dvalishvili, dethroned the champion at UFC 306 last September.
‘Funk Master’ said that he hasn’t been able to get a true read on what his former opponent is like away from fighting during their interactions.
It was clear that Sterling wasn’t a big fan of O’Malley during the build to their fight at UFC 292 and this hasn’t changed in the time since their matchup took place.
He said that aside from the exciting fighting style that O’Malley brings to the table, he can’t pinpoint what it is that draws people to the former champion.
“I don’t really know his personality outside of when he’s constantly asking me about my weight or asking other fighters how much they weigh in person. That’s always been my interaction. ‘How much do you weigh right now?’ So I don’t really have much to go off of.
“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 and that’s usually good when you’re fighting not so good people.”
Aljamain Sterling calls out Sean O’Malley’s fans following injury comments after UFC 306 defeat
One of the big narratives heading into his rematch with Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316 is that Sean O’Malley was battling some injuries heading into their first encounter.
This was something that Aljamain Sterling spoke about a lot following his loss to O’Malley at UFC 292 after he was convinced to make a quick turnaround from his previous title defense.
The former champion called out the contradictory nature of some of O’Malley’s supporters who dismissed Sterling’s injury claims before talking about the same issues after ‘Suga’ lost the title.
“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. I had to turn around after just going 25 minutes with a former two division champion. You can 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 fan base’s mind.”