Bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling will attempt to make his next title defense against Sean O’Malley at UFC 292 in Boston on August 19th.
It’s a quick turnaround for the 33-year-old Sterling who only just successfully defended the belt against former two-division champ Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 less than two weeks ago, beating him by split-decision.
That extended Sterling’s winning streak to 9 fights and marked his third title defense, having also beaten Petr Yan by split-decision and TKO’d TJ Dillashaw.
Now he’ll face off against the 28-year-old O’Malley, who is unbeaten in his last five fights in the division, taking his career record to 16-1 (+1nc).
His current run began with a KO finish of Thomas Almeida, followed by TKO stoppages of both Kris Moutinho and Raulian Paiva, while his next fight against Pedro Munhoz ended in a no-contest ruling after his opponent was left unable to continue due to an eyepoke.
Then in his most recent fight O’Malley took a big step up to fight former champion Petr Yan and proved he had what it takes against top-flight competition by defeating him on the scorecards via split-decision to bounce up the rankings and secure this title shot.
Sterling vs. O’Malley fronts a UFC 292 card that will also feature a women’s strawweight title fight between current champion Zhang Weili and Amanda Lemos.
