Midnight Mania! Bantamweight’s ‘Wannabe Knockoff McGregor’

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Within moments of Aljamain Sterling’s victory over Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 earlier this month, promotion began for his next title defense. Sean O’Malley stormed the cage, lost his jacket, and traded barbs with “Funkmaster,” and the pair have quickly been booked to fight in August at UFC 292 in Boston, Massachusetts.

However, that booking and date wasn’t without controversy. Sterling has been accused of getting in his own way, and consequently, O’Malley’s camp expressed their belief that UFC wants “Suga” to win and take his place. Now, Sterling has acknowledged that might be true, but he also believes O’Malley is nowhere near the star nor knockout artist he claims to be.

“I do think that the UFC does want (O’Malley as the champion),” Sterling said on his YouTube channel (via MMAJunkie). “But then (Welch) started going into his reasonings of why and started calling (O’Malley) like this knockout artist – and not saying he never knocked anybody out, but it’s just very different now that he’s swimming with the big boys in the deep end.

“We just haven’t quite seen this magic knockout wannabe knock-off McGregor – that was like the trajectory that he was on. But for some reason, it’s just like people just don’t got the formula or the juice to be Conor.”

With 11 knockouts in 16 wins, it’s tough to deny that O’Malley can crack. However, Sterling does have a point: “Suga” hasn’t knocked out a single fighter that remains on the UFC roster. Furthermore, Sterling believes that O’Malley has underperformed when facing Top 10 opposition.

“Anytime this man has stepped in there with a shark in the deep end, he’s been chewed up, for the most part, every single time,” Sterling said. “Maybe not say chewed up – (against Marlon) ‘Chito’ (Vera), he got flatlined. You ever see a domino, how you just topple it over and just falls? That was him.”

Insomnia

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Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.