Aljamain Sterling did not want to make that quick of a turnaround for UFC 292. If that wasn’t clear before, it certainly is now.
Sterling (23-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) defends his bantamweight title against Sean O'Malley (16-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) in the Aug. 19 headliner at TD Garden in Boston. “The Funkmaster” wanted more time to recover after retaining his title in a five-round battle with Henry Cejudo in May at UFC 288, but he was offered to fight O’Malley three months later.
“People don’t understand how much time I actually put into this sport,” Sterling said on his podcast. “Sometimes you could get a little burned out. Sometimes that can take a lot out of you mentally. That’s why, after this fight, I had so much things with Henry, so many things planned out, that I just wanted to decompress and stop thinking about fighting for once because I do so much to get to the fight and prep myself to mentally get ready for battle.
“I had that just kind of ripped from underneath my legs. Now I’m like, ‘OK, this time you motherf*ckers are not doing this to me again.’ I’m going to fight, even though it’s literally against my will. People can say whatever – if Dana (White) were to hear this, Hunter (Campbell) were to hear this, they would say, ‘We’re not making him do anything.’ Let’s be real here, bro. Come on, dude. You kind of are. Let’s call a spade a spade.”
Sterling is fighting sooner than he wants to. Throughout his title reign, the 33-year-old has dealt with neck and biceps injuries and said he won’t be completely healthy heading into his fourth title defense against O’Malley.
“Like I said, I still have injuries that I’m still nursing to this day, and I’m not going to stop saying that,” Sterling said. “People can get mad at me. ‘You’re disclosing that you’re not 100 percent healthy.’ No one is 100 percent healthy going into a fight, and clearly I just fought.
“Henry just pulled out of a fight because he’s not 100 percent healthy. I wonder why that happened. … Behind the scenes, (UFC executives) have their ways to kind of make you, ‘OK, I’m going to do this for you guys again, even though I’m not going to get any thank yous for it.'”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 292.
