UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley apparently is not the pay-per-view draw Aljamain Sterling thought he was.
Sterling (23-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) lost his title to O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) by second-round knockout this past August at UFC 292. The O’Malley fight happened just over three months after a successful five-round title defense against Henry Cejudo in which Sterling felt pressured into making a quicker turnaround than he wanted.
After looking at the UFC 292 pay-per-view buys, Sterling questions O’Malley’s star power.
“I got the pay-per-view numbers, and me and her were going through it, and I’m just like, ‘These are the numbers that this guy was trying to say he’s this big pay-per-view star?'” Sterling said on his YouTube channel without revealing the specific figure. “I’m just like, ‘Oh my God.’ When I saw the numbers, I literally said to her, ‘If I had any idea this is what the numbers would have been, if I could have predicted that this is what it would have been, my ass would have waited and taken my vacation then.'”
In hindsight, Sterling admits he probably shouldn’t have taken the O’Malley fight so soon.
“I rolled the dice,” Sterling said. “I trusted that the bag was going to be this blow-me-away kind of thing, bigger than all the other ones. It wasn’t. With that being said, it is what it is. I’m still happy I made some extra money. I had a really good year. I can’t complain about that. Life’s good. I can take care of myself. I can take care of my family.”
Following the loss to O’Malley, Sterling announced his intention of moving up to featherweight. He draws top contender Calvin Kattar (23-7 MMA, 7-5 UFC) at UFC 300 on April 13 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
