"Definitely made a big mistake" - Aljamain Sterling reacts after Henry Cejudo calls Sean O'Malley's stoppage over 'The Funk Master' "premature"
Aljamain Sterling recently responded to Henry Cejudo's remarks regarding Sean O'Malley's stoppage victory at UFC 292.
O'Malley secured the bantamweight title with a second-round TKO win over Sterling in August 2023. 'Sugar' evaded a straight left from Sterling, countering with a right hand to the champion's temple. 'Funk Master' fell to the canvas, prompting O'Malley to unleash a barrage of punches and hammer fists.
Despite sustaining considerable damage, the ex-champion stayed conscious and seemed to be trying to stand up until referee Marc Goddard intervened to end the fight.
During a recent appearance on The HJR Experiment podcast, 'Triple C' argued that O'Malley's victory over Sterling was a result of early stoppage:
"Aljamain just f**king went out there and fought him like the same way somebody fought me... Came in straight and boom gets caught f**king premature stoppage straight up. That stoppage was premature for a world title fight."
Check out Henry Cejudo's comments below:
'Funk Master' responded to Cejudo's remarks on X:
"Definitely made a big mistake but I still agree. Premature as I’m talking to the ref like 'bro cmon man'."
Check out Aljamain Sterling's tweet below:
Sterling is scheduled for his anticipated move to the featherweight division against Calvin Kattar in the landmark UFC 300 pay-per-view event, set for April 13 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Meanwhile, the former two-division champion is set to fight Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 298 on Feb. 17 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Aljamain Sterling criticizes Sean O'Malley's drawing power amid stacked UFC 299 fight card
Aljamain Sterling contends that UFC 300 overlooked significant matchups in favor of bolstering the UFC 299 card for Sean O'Malley's first bantamweight title defense.
'Sugar' is gearing up to defend his championship against Marlon Vera in the main event of the third pay-per-view event of the year, set to take place on March 9 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
'Funk Master' recently implied that the promotion strategically loaded the UFC 299 card over UFC 300 to create the illusion that O'Malley is a bigger draw than he truly is.
During an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Sterling stated:
"It’s just kind of funny that the UFC felt the need to stack this card so much to make it feel like Sean is the draw. It’s actually comical because I know people were kind of trying to sh*t on the [UFC] 300. I’m like, well, a lot of those fights that people probably would’ve wanted [for UFC 300] were on 299, for whatever reason. It doesn’t take much to kind of draw conclusions if you want to build somebody up, you build [them] up, and you bring the other eyeballs with all these other people."
Check out Aljamain Sterling's comments below (32:30):