UFC 292: Sean O'Malley lands a huge shot, TKOs Aljamain Sterling to claim bantamweight title
Aljamain Sterling's nine-fight winning streak and his run as UFC bantamweight champion came to a sudden end Saturday when Sean O'Malley knocked him out in the second round with a crushing counter right hand and some ground and pound.
Sterling threw a left that O'Malley dodged and then threw a blistering straight right that landed on Sterling's chin. Sterling went down in the center of the Octagon and O'Malley landed punches from the top until referee Marc Goddard stopped it 51 seconds into Round 2. The win, in the main event of UFC 292 at TD Garden in Boston, came after a slow-paced first round.
O'Malley was better than a 2-1 underdog but fought with the calm, poise and precision of a veteran. He used his quickness and his feints to stay on the outside and keep Sterling, an elite wrestler and grappler, off of him in the first round.
When Sterling tried to close the distance, he paid the price as a new superstar was born in the UFC. O'Malley made a huge impact when he earned a contract in the UFC in 2017 on "Dana White's Contender Series," and his star was on the rise until the moment he captured the belt Saturday.
"This is the most nervous I've ever been for a fight," O'Malley said in the cage when he'd won the title. "In my eyes Aljamain Sterling is the best bantamweight of all time."
Before the fight, he said that his quickness gave him a huge advantage over all of his opponents, and Sterling concurred with that in his gracious post-fight remarks. But with that quickness, O'Malley packs quite a bit of power and Sterling found that out the hard way Saturday.
O'Malley slipped the left and drilled Sterling with a crushing right. Sterling went face-first to the ground, where the new champion quickly finished it.
"I said going into this fight that it only takes one mistake against me," O'Malley said. "I don't even know if that that was a mistake. I'm just that f***ing good."
O'Malley exuded his usual confidence after the fight. He called out Marlon "Chito" Vera for a bout in December. Vera stopped O'Malley and handed him his only career loss at UFC 252 in Las Vegas on Aug. 16, 2020, when O'Malley suffered a case of drop foot after being kicked.
Now 17-1 with a no-contest, O'Malley has wanted that rematch ever since. But it's not going to be his only title defense if he has his way.
"This is just the beginning of the 'Suga' era," O'Malley said. "I'm running this s*** until 2035 maybe."
The loss ended a nine-fight winning streak for Sterling and was his first since he was kayoed by Marlon Moraes on Dec. 9, 2017.
