There is a new UFC men’s bantamweight champion, and his name is “Sugar” Sean O’Malley.
On Saturday night at the TD Gardens arena in Boston in the UFC 292 main event, O’Malley scored a second-round TKO victory over Aljamain Sterling to claim the crown.
After a mostly uneventful first round that Sterling might have won thanks to a minute of control against the cage at the end of the frame, O’Malley put an end to the evening and began his reign atop the men’s 135-pound division.
O’Malley perfected slipped a lunging straight left from Sterling and countered it with a straight right hand to the champion’s temple. Sterling faceplanted and O’Malley followed up with an assault of punches and hammer fists until the referee called an end to the bout.
Sterling appeared to get impatient in his efforts to close the distance, and he put himself in a precarious position, and O’Malley made him pay.
The loss didn’t only cost Sterling (23-4) the title he’d held since March 2021, it also snapped his nine-fight win streak.
The new champion, O’Malley improved to 17-1 and he wasted no time calling out his first challenger. The 28-year-old wants another crack at Marlon “Chito” Vera, the only man to beat him as a professional in MMA.
Vera scored a controversial first-round TKO win over O’Malley in 2020. A high calf kick from Vera caused a freak injury that forced the stoppage, and O’Malley seemingly wants revenge.
While Vera, who defeated Pedro Munhoz earlier in the evening, would make an excellent first challenger for O’Malley, he’s not the No. 1 contender.
Sterling could ask for a rematch, but if he doesn’t, his teammate and No. 1 contender Merab Dvalishvili is also waiting in the wings. We’ll have to wait to see who O’Malley gets for his first defense, as it appears there are at least three logical options.
Sterling had talked of moving up to 145 pounds, but he didn’t sound terribly confident about that jump during the post-fight presser. When asked about the potential move up to featherweight, Sterling expressed concern for how he would handle the likes of 145-pound champion Alexander Volkanovski if he was just stopped by O’Malley.
It seems he made need some time to regroup before making any hard plans about his immediate fighting future. Here are the results of all of the fights from UFC 292:
Main Card
- Sean O’Malley def. (c) Aljamain Sterling via 2nd-round TKO (0:51) – – NEW CHAMPION
- (c) Zhang Weili def. Amanda Lemos via UD (50-43, 50-44, 49-45)
- Ian Machado Garry def. Neil Magny via UD (30-x26 x2, 30-24)
- Mario Bautista def. Da’Mon Blackshear via unanimous decision (29-28 x2, 30-27)
- Marlon Vera def. Pedro Munhoz via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)
Prelims
- Brad Tavares def. Chris Weidman via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
- Gregory Rodrigues def. Denis Tiuliulin via first-round KO (1:43)
- Kurt Holobaugh def. Austin Hubbard via sub (triangle choke) (R2, 2:39)
- Brad Katona def. Cody Gibson via unanimous decision (29-28 x2, 30-27)
- Andre Petroski def. Gerald Meerschaert via split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)
- Natalia Silva def. Andrea Lee via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
- Karine Silva def. Maryna Moroz via sub (guillotine) (R1, 4:59)
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