{"id":14187,"date":"2023-08-20T12:16:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T17:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=14187"},"modified":"2023-08-20T12:16:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T17:16:53","slug":"sean-omalley-knocks-out-aljamain-sterling-to-claim-ufc-bantamweight-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/sean-omalley-knocks-out-aljamain-sterling-to-claim-ufc-bantamweight-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean O\u2019Malley knocks out Aljamain Sterling to claim UFC bantamweight title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSuga\u201d Sean O\u2019Malley<\/strong> knocked out UFC<\/strong><\/a> bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling<\/strong> to claim the belt in a wild exchange.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley, formerly the No. 2 ranked fighter at the weight class, was the challenger at UFC 292 in Boston. He landed a perfectly timed right hand right across the face of Sterling.<\/p>\n

Sterling, the overwhelming favorite and considered the best champion in the weight class\u2019s history, went down immediately and tried to defend. The knockout can be seen below.<\/p>\n

\n\n

THE FULL @SUGASEANMMA<\/a> KNOCKOUT!<\/p>\n

A right hand that will live on in UFC history at #UFC292<\/a>! pic.twitter.com\/jM5MkPTxqK<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 UFC (@ufc) August 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cPunching backwards is a skill not a lot of people possess and I can punch going backwards and I knew he was going to be pressuring me and I know he likes to throw to shoot,\u201d O\u2019Malley said post fight. \u201cHe likes to throw for me to counter so he can shoot under. So I knew he was going to be lunging in with shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really wasn\u2019t even a bad punch that he threw, it\u2019s just I\u2019m that (expletive) accurate. I sniped him. I\u2019ve been saying all week, I\u2019m a sniper. I\u2019m going to snipe his chin. I\u2019m going to find it and there we were. That\u2019s definitely a punch I visualized all week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many thought O\u2019Malley\u2019s run to the belt came with the aid of UFC president Dana White. The highest quality opponent O\u2019Malley defeated along the way was former champion Petr Yan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no such thing as Dana White privilege in this company,\u201d White said during the post fight press conference.<\/a> \u201cO\u2019Malley got the title shot because he earned it. When you think about the fight and you think about Sterling, you say to yourself, \u2018how does Sean beat that guy?\u2019\u2026 You never know man, styles make fights and things happen in fights that you sometimes don\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce Springsteen just played here and did $5 million, we did $7 million\u2026 This is also the biggest bantamweight championship fight ever on PPV globally\u2026 O\u2019Malley isn\u2019t going to be a star; he IS a star!\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley improved to 17-1 (1 NC) in his career. His lone loss came to Marlon \u201cChito\u201d Vera<\/strong> back on August 16, 2020. Vera won earlier in the evening and O\u2019Malley proceeded to call him out for a rematch.<\/p>\n

Sterling fell to 23-4 in his career after three title defenses over Yan and former champions TJ Dillishaw<\/strong> and Henry Cejudo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley went from viral sensation during Dana White\u2019s Contender Series in 2017 to quite the UFC career and now bantamweight champion.<\/p>\n

The post Sean O\u2019Malley knocks out Aljamain Sterling to claim UFC bantamweight title<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSuga\u201d Sean O\u2019Malley knocked out UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling to claim the belt in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}