Appearing to skirt a future title defense at the bantamweight limit against the streaking, Merab Dvalishvili in his Octagon return – newly-minted champion, Sean O’Malley has shut down an immediate title defense rematch with Aljamain Sterling next, after the Uniondale native called for a re-run during the broadcast of UFC 293 last night.
O’Malley, just the second fighter from Dana White’s Contender Series to land Octagon gold, managed to do so last month in the main event of UFC 292, toppling the dominant Sterling with a spectacular second round TKO victory in Boston, Massachusetts.
And targeting a comeback to the Octagon before the close of this year – potentially on December 16. at UFC 296 in Las Vegas, Nevada, O’Malley has firmly set sights on a bid to avenge his sole professional loss in a showdown against former-foe, Marlon Vera.
Sean O’Malley claps back at Aljamain Sterling during UFC 293 broadcast
However, as for Sterling, the Serra-Longo MMA mainstay has made his thoughts on his future clear, displaying a note for O’Malley on his phone – calling for an immediate title rematch on the broadcast of UFC 293.
Seated back home in the United States and obviously tuning into watch the action at UFC 293 last night in Sydney, Australia – O’Malley clapped back and definitively shut down calls from Sterling for a rematch, simply showing his own phone screen with the word, “No”.
Expected to pursue a title rematch with Vera next, as mentioned above, Montana native, O’Malley has already shut down the possibility of a clash with Georgia native, Dvalishvili, claiming his win over Sterling in August is as good as a win over the Tbilisi grappling star.
“I knocked out Merab (Dvalishvili) on August 19th, the same night I knocked out Aljo (Aljamain Sterling),” Sean O’Malley said. “They’re the same, they hold hands, they’re the same person. I knocked them both out August 19th, so we’ll see what happens. I’ve called out the ‘Chito’ fight before me versus Aljo, before Pedro versus ‘Chito’.”
“I said, ‘Hey, ‘Chito’ goes out there and wins, I go out there and win, I’m fighting ‘Chito’ for my first title defense,’ And that’s what happened,” Sean O’Malley explained. That’s what’s going to happen next in my eyes. That’s what I want, but at the end of the day, I’ll go out there and knock out whoever they [the UFC] put in front of me.”