Sean O'Malley more confident about becoming UFC champion after watching Aljamain Sterling vs. Henry Cejudo live
Sean O'Malley feels confident with his chances of becoming UFC bantamweight champion after being live in attendance for Aljamain Sterling's most recent bout with Henry Cejudo.
While speaking to Michael Bisping on his YouTube channel, O'Malley shared his initial thoughts on the main event between Sterling and Cejudo. He also took a dig at the result, and noted that he had to watch it a second time. He mentioned that being in the arena and witnessing the fight live as well as getting in the octagon for a staredown with the champion, made him more confident.
"I thought Henry won, haven't gone back and re-watched it and I keep saying I'm going to and I am going to sooner than later..But yeah, it was cool to watch them live and in person. You know, it definitely made me more confident, especially getting in the cage with Aljo face-to-face." [6:11 - 6:30]
'Sugar' had a back-and-forth with 'FunkMaster' in the octagon after the fight, which sets the stage for their title fight in the coming months. He described his experience being in the cage with Sterling and mentioned that the bantamweight champion will pose a tougher challenge than Cejudo would have, saying:
"He's [Aljamain Sterling] a big guy...I thought me vs. Henry would've been a bigger fight, considering what he's kinda done but Aljo went out there and beat him, so really I think me and Aljo is gonna be a similar size fight. I think Henry...I don't wanna say easier opponent but I think Aljamain's definitely more of a difficult challenge than Henry is." [6:32 - 7:17]
It will be interesting to see when the promotion plan to book Sterling vs. O'Malley, especially considering that the fight will generate more interest after what transpired at UFC 288.
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Sean O'Malley opens up about his weight-cut to bantamweight
Sean O'Malley opened up about his weight-cut to bantamweight and noted that he is more strategic with when he cuts to 135lbs.
During the aforementioned interview, 'Sugar' was asked if the cut to bantamweight is tough for him, especially with his stature. He mentioned that it's not an easy weight-cut but he believes that Aljamain Sterling has more difficulty making 135lbs.
"I would say I'm 151-152[lbs], so the weight-cut's not easy, it's not fun...I think it's easier than Aljo's weight-cut I'll say that...I would like to stay around bantamweight but you never know who's the featherweight champ at the time, you know champ-champ status is a big deal." [4:23 - 5:18]