Sean O’Malley thinks it makes a lot of sense for Aljamain Sterling to test his luck at 145 pounds.
“I like Aljo, he’s a good dude. I really never said anything bad about him. I think if he goes up to ‘45, it’d be super interesting. I think there’s a lot of interesting fights up there at ‘45,” O’Malley recently said during an in-studio appearance on The MMA Hour.
“I think his weight gets big enough for that. You know, I’m probably 160 [pounds] right now, I probably [won’t] get over this. He’s probably 175. Like, it just doesn’t make sense to go back to ‘35, for his health, for his longevity. I think there’s certain matchups at ‘45 that he could do good [with]. What about Aljo versus, like, Brian Ortega? That’s a sweet fight.”
O’Malley, 29, captured the UFC bantamweight title in August with a second-round knockout of Sterling at UFC 292. O’Malley is expected to make the first defense of his belt in a rematch against the only man to defeat him in MMA, Marlon Vera, on March 9 at UFC 299.
Sterling, 34, was a record-breaking champion prior to his loss to O’Malley. “Funkmaster” holds a variety of benchmarks in the UFC bantamweight division, including the most divisional wins (14), most consecutive wins (9), as well as the most consecutive title defenses (3). His future, however, has been one giant question mark since his title defeat.
With Vera set to get the next title shot and Sterling’s longtime friend and training partner Merab Dvalishvili in the championship mix, “Funkmaster” recently underwent testing at the UFC Performance Institute to determine his viability up one weight class at 145 pounds. Sterling said on his YouTube channel that he has been offered a fight against featherweight contender Calvin Kattar and wanted to make sure his body would allow him to be competitive at 145 pounds before committing to changing divisions. Sterling said the test results told him that he’d be an “average-sized featherweight,” which surprised him.
“It gave me a lot more comfort in where I’m at and making the move to 145,” Sterling said earlier this month.
“As of right now, my mindset is definitely leaning towards 145, for featherweight. I want to do one more round of testing on my own. ... Psychologically, I still feel like I need to be the biggest guy because that’s just what I did at bantamweight, what I’ve done as a wrestler. Psychologically, I need to make sure I’m going to be OK where I know that when I step in there, I feel comfortable, confident that I can win and I can compete with guys in that weight class.”
O’Malley agrees that Sterling could be able to hold his own at the heavier weight class, but he also doubts whether the former champ is mentally tough enough to make the move.
“He’ll probably go back down to ‘35, just because he’s insecure and he wants to be stronger and bigger than these guys,” O’Malley said. “Why else would he not fight at ‘45? It’s not like his skills aren’t there. His skills, he’s good. Not as good as me, but he’s good. You know what I mean? He could go up to ‘45, I think he’d do fine up there.”
