Former UFC champion believes Sean O'Malley would have succeeded at featherweight

Sean O'Malley in victory against aljamain sterling. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram.

with the second defeat to Merab Dvalishvili in the main fight of UFC 316, Sean O'Malley is in a complicated situation. Despite having victories against strong names in the bantamweight division (up to 61,2 kg), the negative record with the Georgian makes the possibility of a trilogy extremely unlikely. In this context, aljamain sterling believes that the best solution for Suga would be to change categories.

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In an interview with the website 'MMA fighting' this Friday (13), the former bantamweight champion (up to 61,2 kg.) said he believes O'Malley will adapt well in a possible move up, in addition to expressing interest in facing him for the second time. Sterling was knocked out in the second round by Suga in UFC 292, on which occasion he lost the title.

“I think Sean would do really well at 66 pounds, and I’m not saying that because I would love to fight him again, because that’s obvious. But I think his speed and length would translate really well. He’ll be able to lift a little bit more weight to get stronger. I think he would be successful. Would he be as successful as he was at 61 pounds? I don’t know. It’s hard to say because those guys are obviously smaller than him in terms of reach and everything, but his athletic ability and his fight IQ, I think, are very good, where he would be relatively good at 61 pounds,” he said.

Sean O'Malley (left) won the bantamweight belt in UFC 292. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram

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However, Aljo also highlighted that the high number of athletes with grappling as a strong point in the featherweight division (up to 65,7 kg) could pose problems for O'Malley's fast and unorthodox style.

“The only problem is that there are some dogs in the 66-pound class who, if they grab him, already know how to grab him. I think he’ll have to deal with heavier guys in the grapple, like a Movsar (Evloev), or me, a Chepe (Mariscal), Steve Garcia, when he knocks you down and gets to the top position. Lerone murphy It's not a big one grappler, I know Bryce (Mitchell) is coming down, obviously Ilia [Topuria], he's now at 65,7 pounds, but I think there's a little bit more depth for guys who know grapple. Even Youssef (Zalal) is not a grappler bad, the guy from david onama when he gets to the top position, then it really depends on what he wants to do,” he concluded.