Aljamain Sterling on losing to Sean O’Malley at UFC 292: ‘He stayed disciplined’

“He stayed disciplined to his game plan, and I kind of let trying to be more of an exciting style for the fans play a factor”

Sean O’Malley defeated Aljamain Sterling in the main event of UFC 292 on Saturday, ending Sterling’s reign as bantamweight champion.

Sterling entered the fight having won three straight UFC bantamweight title defenses, a new record for the division. But he made a costly error against O’Malley, who became champion after landing a vicious right hand in the opening minute of the second round.

“Sean did a good job of the one thing I knew he would be good at, that step-back counter,” says Sterling. “He capitalized on the one mistake that I made, and I paid for it.”

The finishing sequence saw Sterling overextend with his left hand, landing off-balance, and O’Malley found his chin. It was a star-making moment for O’Malley, whose lateral movement throughout the first five minutes clearly made Sterling impatient.

“His footwork was better than I thought,” says Sterling. “I was like, ‘I can’t track this mother----- down.’

“I thought I had his timing. I threw the left hand, and as I was coming down, he stepped back, he hit a beautiful counter right, and it was clean.”

Unbeknownst to Sterling, O’Malley entered the bout with an injury that should have prevented him from victory.

“I haven’t grappled in six weeks,” O’Malley admitted. “I’ve had a muscle strain, and I literally couldn’t grapple or MMA spar. There was no way I was pulling out [of the fight], but I had a muscle strain right under my rib. I could not get taken down.”

Remarkably, O’Malley did not get taken down by Sterling. He stuck to his game plan, which Sterling, surprisingly, did not.

“He stayed disciplined,” says Sterling. “I didn’t want the fight to be boring. I could have sat on the outside and kept playing the leg kick game. But then I would have had all the criticisms of everybody else. That’s the difference. He stayed disciplined to his game plan, and I kind of let trying to be more of an exciting style for the fans play a factor.

“We’ve seen the Izzy-Yoel Romero fight, we’ve seen bad fights before where not much happens because no one wants to make that grave mistake. I made the mistake. Sean capitalized, I paid for it.”

Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.