Aljamain Sterling recently disclosed a text message he received from former rival Sean O’Malley following his victory against Brian Ortega at UFC Shanghai. Sterling was taken aback by O’Malley’s gesture, as he was impressed with his performance.
For his first fight of the year, Sterling took on Ortega in a 153-pound catchweight bout in the co-main event of UFC Shanghai at the Shanghai Indoor Stadium last month. Both fighters were initially booked for a featherweight matchup, however, Ortega missed weight by eight pounds.
‚Funk Master‘ showcased his striking abilities and secured a unanimous decision win over Ortega, with all three judges scoring the fight 50-45 in his favor. During a recent conversation with his close friend and teammate Merab Dvalishvili on his YouTube channel, Sterling disclosed that O’Malley sent him his regards.
“O’Malley sent me a message“
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Sterling then handed over his phone to Dvalishvili, who read ‚Suga’s‘ message:
“Holy sh*t, you looked good. Nasty jab, creative. Strong, beautiful performance“
Check out Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili’s interaction below (via Championship Rounds X post):
Notably, Sterling and O’Malley faced each other in the main event of UFC 292 in 2023, where the 30-year-old knocked out Sterling with a devastating right hand in the second round to become the new bantamweight champion. The American-Jamaican then left the 135-pound weight class and moved up to featherweight.
In his second title defense, O’Malley took on Dvalishvili at Noche UFC 306 last year and lost his bantamweight belt via unanimous decision. The two met again in a rematch at UFC 316 earlier this year, which saw the Georgian fighter emerge victorious by securing a third-round submission.
Aljamain Sterling opens up about facing a UFC legend
In his third bantamweight title defense, then-champion Aljamain Sterling fought former double champion Henry Cejudo in the main event of UFC 288 in 2023 and secured a split decision win.
During a recent appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Sterling discussed his thoughts before taking on Cejudo:
“A lot of people were counting me out because of my accolades stacked against Henry’s. And I’m like, yeah, it’s very impressive, but we gotta keep a couple of factors in mind…As long as I have respect for his abilities, but also remembering why I’m in this position to begin with. I didn’t get there by accident. mean, you could say the whole illegal knee or whatever, but my resume before the illegal knee happened, I think, was probably one of the best runs before someone got to a title shot opportunity.“ [52:02]
Edited by Swagat Kumar Jena
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