SEAN O'MALLEY KNOCKS OUT ALJAMAIN STERLING - THE SUGA SHOW HAS ARRIVED
OHHHHH MYYYYYYY!!!!! SEAN O'MALLEY IS THE NEW UFC BANTAMWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!!!!
Dana White rn:
Aljamain Sterling vs Sean O'Malley in Boston had a HUGE, HUUUUGE "big fight feel" tonight.
Both of their walkouts made for an amazing atmosphere where the crowd was on their feet from the start, they had a super intense faceoff before Bruce Buffer's introductions….
….and the matchup was perfect; the ultimate striker vs grappler battle. Sean O'Malley was coming into his first title fight ever, Aljo being the experienced vet on his way out of the division, the implications with Merab (and then Chito Vera after his win tonight) - everything about this fight was intriguing.
The first round was a total feeling-out process for both men, where they were clearly pacing themselves for a five round fight and respecting each other's best tools by not taking too many chances one way or the other. It was nearly impossible to score, but towards the very end of the round, Aljo shot for a takedown and landed a couple punches in the clinch - so I suppose you'd give that to him.
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In the second, though, Aljamain came out a little more aggressive, and made one little mistake right off the bat by overextending on a left hand, allowing for a devastating counter-right from O'Malley to land that dropped Aljo BAD.
Suga then followed up by a bunch of ground-and-pound to earn the stoppage, and blew the roof off the TD Garden….
This must've truly been Dana White and the UFC's dream come true.
Sean O'Malley, an insanely marketable young knockout artist, is now UFC Champ, he won the title in spectacular fashion, and he immediately called out the one person he holds a loss to for a rematch - and that guy won his fight tonight too!
I definitely think the UFC will run back O'Malley/Chito Vera in December, because it's the biggest fight you could make from a business/storyline standpoint, but I can't even imagine how much that'll piss off Merab Dvalishvili, Cory Sandhagen, and probably - Aljamain Sterling.
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Aljo swore up and down this would be his last fight at 135 and that now was his teammate Merab's time, but he was incredibly honest after the fight and said he wanted to reevaluate things now, because if O'Malley could catch him like that, what could Volkanovski do to him?
So I'd imagine he's gonna stick around at 135 for a little while, at least until he gets a rematch.
Sterling played the heel perfectly all week, and had a ROCKY/CREED villain type entrance vibe in Boston, but really seemed to turn the crowd around with that classy post-fight interview. Maybe this could be the start of his face turn with the fans.
For O'Malley, this could be the start of one of the biggest superstardom runs in the sport. We'll just have to wait and see.