“I should get a rematch if Izzy does!”
Aljamain Sterling continues to make his case for an immediate rematch against Sean O’Malley.
Sterling held the UFC bantamweight title for two and a half years, defending it three times before losing to O’Malley in August. It was a shocking loss: “Suga” caught “Funkmaster” coming in sloppy and knocked him out cold with a perfect counter.
The sequence looked a lot like Conor McGregor’s infamous KO of Jose Aldo. And like McGregor, O’Malley isn’t interested in accepting a rematch. Of course, this is the UFC. What the bosses say, goes. So if the UFC wanted O’Malley vs. Sterling 2, it could happen.
In a new video on his YouTube channel, Sterling brought up Israel Adesanya’s latest loss and talk of “Stylebender” getting an immediate rematch.
“If we’re gonna talk about giving instant rematches,” Sterling said (via MMA Junkie). “You give a guy who lost two fights in the same title reign – so he won the belt, he lost, beat the guy, and then came back and lost again to another guy. So it’s like, how are you giving him another title shot?”
“And then you tell me that I don’t deserve it? That’s all I’m saying.”
“I’m not knocking Izzy,” Sterling added. “Izzy, if they give you the title shot, brother, take that s— and run. But what I’m saying is, how do you get it and I don’t? If the fans, Dana, whoever can justify that to me and I could be like, ‘Aight, I can see the point.’ But I don’t see the point.”
The obvious answer is popularity and selling power. Israel Adesanya is one of the biggest stars in the UFC. Aljamain Sterling is not. If it makes dollars, it makes sense, and unfortunately “Funkmaster” doesn’t bring in the dollars like Izzy.
Sterling also has a reputation amongst UFC brass — fair or not — for being somewhat difficult to work with. Dana White has publicly ripped Aljamain for going back and forth on a variety of topics, saying the former champ can’t get out of his own way.
A good example of this? Sterling seemingly shutting down the idea of fighting Sean O’Malley in December, which is when “Suga” wants to have his first defense.
“Even that, honestly, it wouldn’t even be unless there was some payday incentive or something else on top of that that would make me be like, ‘All right, I’m gonna chill out on the vacation and stop everything and go back to the gym,’” he said.
Not that we feel like Sterling is at the top of the UFC’s list right now. O’Malley has asked for a rematch against Marlon “Chito” Vera. Even though there are fighters higher up the rankings ready to go, that’s a bout that makes money, so again … it makes sense.