In a recent interview Sean O’Malley had with ESPN, he stated that he has a ‘weird addiction’ to being the underdog ahead of his clash with Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292.
The main event of UFC 292 hosts two of the biggest stars in the bantamweight division. Sean O’Malley, coming off a split decision win over Petr Yan, has been set as a 2/1 underdog by Sky Bet while his opponent and current UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling sits at a 4/11 favourite by Sky Bet appearing to create O’Malley as the underdog.
However, this is not holding back O’Malley as he says he loves being the underdog: “It gets me excited. I want to go our and prove people wrong. The last fight, Everyone thought I was going to lose that fight”.
He added:
“Then when I won that fight it just made everyone so mad. I liked that for whatever reason, I liked that. So for me to go out there and be an underdog again against Aljamain, it’s a weird addiction”.
Sean O’Malley Discusses UFC 292 Title Fight
The ESPN interview began to move towards O’Malley’s opponent, Aljamain Sterling. Sterling is coming off a split decision win over flyweight and bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo. Sterling claims that once he defends his title again he will move up to featherweight.
O’Malley was very complimentary about his opponent ahead of the biggest fight of his career: “Aljamain is the best bantamweight the UFC has ever know”. He continued with “He’s in his prime. He’s 33 I think, that’s pretty much prime age. All the male UFC champions are in their 30s. He’s the best grappler in the division, I’m a striker. This is a striker v grappler matchup so it’s exciting.”
O’Malley then reflects on his last bout with Petr Yan and how his camp has changed for his fight with Sterling: “I looked at the Petr fight. I made a mistake”
“I did not expect him to wrestle or to shoot at all. I train grappling all the time- in camp, we grapple.’ ‘But for this fight , we know he’s going to shoot so we’ve got to have a game plan around that, whereas the Petr fight it was more of a kick-boxing camp.”
Quotes via Daily Mail
New Beginnings
UFC 292 will be the final bell to the dominant reign of Aljamain Sterling in the the bantamweight division as he plans to move up to the featherweight division, leaving the bantamweight throne open for the likes of Merab Dvalishvili, Cory Sandhagen and most importantly, Sean O’Malley.
This could be the chance for O’Malley to not only gain a win over one of the bantamweight greats but to begin building his own legacy.
What do you think of Sean O’Malley and his chances of attaining UFC bantamweight gold this Saturday? Let us know in the comments!
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
