'Makes no sense'… Aljamain Sterling questions Dana White's decision to push the narrative that Sean O'Malley looked 'flat' at UFC 306
09/17/2024 08:53 AM
Aljamain Sterling saw his teammate and longtime friend Merab Dvalishvili claim UFC bantamweight gold this past weekend at UFC 306, claiming that the ‘universe has corrected itself’ with Sean O’Malley losing his title.
There aren’t many tighter-knit teams in MMA than the Longo & Weidman team in New York, and when Aljamain Sterling lost the UFC bantamweight title last August, it opened up the door for his teammate and longtime friend, Merab Dvalishvili to finally fight for the title.
Aljamain Sterling reacts to Merab Dvalishvili beating Sean O’Malley
Following his loss to Sean O’Malley last August, ‘Funkmaster’ claimed that he was forced to fight ‘Suga’ and wasn’t healthy heading into the fight, giving the then-challenger an unfair advantage.
Speaking on his YouTube channel after Dvalishvili’s title win, the 35-year-old hinted that the UFC attempted to make it an uneven playing field again by telling the Georgian the fight was official after telling O’Malley.
“Merab finally got his fair shake, he got a fair fight although O’Malley probably knew about the Sphere fight before Merab did and had more time to prepare. When they announced it for Merab from what I remember they called him, it was exactly eight weeks,” Sterling stated in a video on his YouTube channel.
“Now come on, once again we’re trying to put this ball in the court where (Merab) has to now scramble around like, ok I’m fighting here I’ve got to get all these training partners,” he continued.
Fortunately for ‘The Machine’ eight weeks of preparation was more than enough as he once again managed to weaponize his cardio and soared on to a unanimous decision victory.
Sterling questions Dana White’s decision to push the narrative that O’Malley looked ‘flat’
Following O’Malley’s lackluster performance, fans online questioned whether the 29-year-old was carrying any injuries into the fight or questioning whether something had gone wrong during camp.
It wasn’t just the fans that questioned ‘Suga’s’ performance, as immediately following the fight at the post-fight press conference, UFC CEO Dana White stated that O’Malley looked flat.
Despite that, not making any excuses, O’Malley spoke out for the first time since his loss, giving credit to Merab and stating that he was just beaten by a stronger fighter.
Sterling has questioned White’s decision to push the narrative that O’Malley looked flat, instead of giving Dvalishvili credit for formulating a great game plan and making O’Malley look flat.
“I know people are trying to say that O’Malley looked flat, I think that’s the narrative that Dana was trying to push. If I’m being fair, if you look at his fights his track record of all the guys he’s beaten, they were all punching bags for the most part.
“To say he looked flat makes no sense. The opening bell when he came out with those feints and those hip twitches that he does so well… He came out exactly how Conor McGregor did against Khabib (Nurmagomedov),” Sterling stated.
