Aljamain Sterling feels he was pressured by UFC bosses to defend his title against Sean O’Malley.
Three months after retaining the bantamweight title in a five-round battle against Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 In May 2023, Sterling (24-4 MMA, 16-4 UFC) was booked to defend his title against O’Malley (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) in UFC 292 in August 2023. Sterling wanted more time to recover from lingering injuries, but ended up accepting the fight. He was knocked out in the second round.
In hindsight, Sterling doesn’t think he should have accepted the relatively quick turnaround. Sterling’s negotiations with UFC Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell were included in the recent documentary series “Fight Inc: Inside the UFC.” Looking back, he didn’t like the way the situation was presented.
“I know we saw the video circulating all over social media, (the) conversation between me, my manager (Tiki Ghosn) and Hunter,” Sterling said in his Youtube channel. “I wasn’t very excited to see that clip again because I had to relive all those emotions again. That kind of pissed me off a little because it really pissed me off at that moment. Just how it all unfolded.
“If you look at the series of events, I had just finished fighting. I had a very difficult training camp to make that weight reduction. I fought one of the greatest combat athletes of all time, Henry Cejudo. Five rounds, hard fighting and then fight night – and that’s just the series of events. They don’t do fights on fight night, but somehow, for some reason, my particular fight happened that night.”
Sterling admits the best man won that night, but doesn’t think he got a fair answer. He wanted a chance to heal and see how his body behaved, but says he succumbed to the pressure when he was in the hot seat with Campbell.
“You’re telling me I can sit out, but you’re also telling me, ‘Well, if you don’t fight, then you won’t fight for almost a year,’ and that’s not cool either,” Sterling said. “So you almost tie my hands behind my back, but I go the way I was like, ‘You know what? If I’m going to roll the dice because my teammates and my managers are pressuring me to do it, I’m going to roll the dice.’”
