Aljamain Sterling can’t help but laugh when hearing Sean O’Malley’s criticism aimed at him as the bantamweights prepared to clash in the main event of UFC 292 in August.
Despite already promising that he’ll be ready for the fight, O’Malley questioned Sterling’s commitment after he openly admitted that it was a quick turnaround to compete again after just going five rounds with Henry Cejudo this past May. O’Malley slammed Sterling while stating “you have four months [to get ready] … take two months off, heal up, and then train hard for two months, it ain’t f****** science, or is it?”
Playing Neil deGrasse Tyson if only for a day, Sterling then confirmed it’s not actually science.
“First off, it’s not science you freaking numb-nut moron, it’s called math,” Sterling said in a video posted to Twitter. “Mathematics. You probably forgot because you might have dropped out of high school or maybe you smoked all your brains away and you completely just forgot the difference between science and mathematics when you’re dealing with numbers. You know the big numbers that I like to make when I cash out for whooping that ass.
“As I said, I’m going to show up Aug. 19, not because of you, not because of the fans, I’m showing up because Dana [White] is cutting the check for Aug. 19. Other than that, you call no shots, I call no shots so let’s stop pretending all this other nonsense. What’s this going to be 97 days [between fights]? Last time I checked I thought that was three months, not four but I mean maybe it’s science. Maybe there’s something to this. Maybe the way you do your math is completely different from me but I’m going to take the time off, heal up, obviously I had the discipline to become a champion.”
Suga Shane fought one top 5 guy who whooped his ass, but was handed a decision, took 11 months to prepare for me, and then tells me I’m not fighting enough pic.twitter.com/LjWT7Ms6gl
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) May 23, 2023
Sterling also responded to O’Malley’s jabs that UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya managed to compete four times over the span of 12 months so he should be able to do the same.
As it stands, Sterling has defended his title three times in the past 13 months, which makes him one of the most active champions on the UFC roster alongside Adesanya and featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski.
Sterling then compared his resume to O’Malley, who most recently competed this past October in a three-round fight against ex-UFC champion Petr Yan following a bout against Pedro Munhoz in July 2022 that ended in a no-contest due to an eye poke in the second round.
“Like you said [Israel Adesanya] has fought four times a year — how many times did you fight in the last year?” Sterling said. “Wait, oh wait, Abu Dhabi, Oct. 22 we both fought on the same card. I fought three times in 13 months, you fought I think once. Wow, that’s impressive, bro.
“Wow. I want to be just like you when I grow up. High all the time, talk like this and beat all these guys in the top 5 [rankings] that are still currently in the UFC. Dude, you’re such a freaking badass! You’re so freaking awesome. Isn’t Sean awesome?”
Given the way these two are going after each other, it’s likely Sterling and O’Malley will have plenty more to say between now and Aug. 19 when they’re actually scheduled to meet.
