Aljamain Sterling to defend his title at UFC 292 against Sean O'Malley
Aljamain Sterling of Jamaica (right) exchanges words with Sean O'Malley after his bantamweight title bout against Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 at Prudential Center on May 6, 2023. Credit: Getty Images
In the moments after Aljamain Sterling defeated Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 two weeks ago, he was met in the cage by Sean O'Malley.
They had words. Lots and lots of words. Back and forth they went as Sterling and O'Malley didn't let the opportunity to put some steam on their potential matchup slip by. (Of course, Merab Dvalishvili, Sterling's teammate and close friend, stole the whole scene when he put on O'Malley's "Thriller" jacket.)
Potential is now reality.
Sterling, a Serra-Longo trained fighter from Uniondale, will defend his bantamweight title at UFC 292 on Aug. 19 at TD Garden in Boston.
"The fight everybody's been waiting for," UFC president Dana White said during the fight announcement Tuesday on UFC's YouTube channel.
Sterling owns the most consecutive title defenses in UFC bantamweight history at three, including split decisions over Petr Yan and Cejudo and a TKO of TJ Dillashaw. All three were either current or former champions in the division. Sterling (23-3) is on a nine-fight win streak, also tops in the division's history. Sterling also ranks first among the UFC's 135-pounders in wins (14), total fight time (3:49:49), control time (1:08:36) and total strikes landed (1,646).
Sterling posted a photo on his Instagram story on Wednesday of his left foot getting an X-ray. That foot was swollen after the Cejudo fight to the point where he had to wear a slide rather than his dress shoe in the post-fight interview room.
O'Malley (16-1, 1 no contest) is coming off a split-decision win over Yan last October. He is known for his striking skills. He ranks first in UFC bantamweight history in signature strike accuracy (60.9%), strikes landed per minute (7.47) and striking differential (4.04).
Zhang Weili will defend her strawweight title against Amanda Lemos in the co-main event.
Mark La Monica is a deputy sports editor at Newsday. He also covers mixed martial arts.
