Alexander Volkanovski thinks bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling’s path to victory is more reliable than Sean O'Malley’s at UFC 292.
Sterling (23-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) defends his title against O’Malley (16-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) in Saturday’s pay-per-view main event at TD Garden in Boston. Sterling has used his grappling to suffocate his opponents, notching impressive title defenses over former champions Petr Yan, T.J. Dillashaw, and Henry Cejudo. Because of his effective game plan, featherweight champion Volkanovski sees Sterling beating O’Malley – even though he has a gut feeling that O’Malley could pull off the upset.
“I’m leaning towards Aljamain because I just think that that wrestling and that control, it’s going to eventually get there,” Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. “You know how sometimes you just watch someone’s story and it’s just like something is meant to be? Then you got Aljamain talking about definitely moving up after this. A part of the story is does he lose and he was moving up anyway and Sean O’Malley, this whole rise that he’s done, becoming champion, massive superstar for the UFC. It could be – it feels likes sort of something that could happen. Beating Petr Yan?
“You know when some people just have that momentum, and it’s just meant to be and it happens? I’m a believer of that sometimes, man, I really am. I feel like it could definitely be a TKO for Sean O’Malley because his striking is that good, but I will lean towards Aljamain, I think he has got a safer way to victory. More percentage-wise, I’m always going to go there, but it could definitely happen for Sean O’Malley. We know he’s going to turn up. This is a massive fight for him. We know he wants to get paid, and he knows what winning’s going to do for his paycheck. Being a champ, the money is good, we ain’t going to lie about that.”
Volkanovski, one of the most well rounded fighters on the roster, rates O’Malley’s striking amongst the best in the UFC.
“Sean O’Malley, I think he’s up there, one of the best strikers you could even say in the UFC,” Volkanovski said. “He’s right up there, especially in that division. There’s so many. That’s a stacked division. Your (Cory) Sandhagens, obviously, Petr Yans, Aljamains, ‘Chito,’ Pedro, there’s so much talent. It is a stacked division, and I think he’s up there as one of the best when it comes to striking, so that’s saying something.
“He’s very creative. He doesn’t just throw flashy stuff. It’s calculated. He’s got really good distance management. He’s really good at drawing strikes out of people and countering. He’s really good on the offense coming forward. He’s good even on the back foot. He’s good on his angles, very, very high level stuff, and he can be very creative while he does that.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 292.
