[autotag]Al Iaquinta[/autotag] expects [autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag] to be too much for [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag].
Bantamweight champion Sterling (23-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) defends his title against O’Malley (16-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) Saturday in the main event of UFC 292, which takes place at TD Garden in Boston and airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+.
Sterling, who retained his title against Henry Cejudo in May, admitted that his quick turnaround against O’Malley was against his will. But Iaquinta says it only took a couple of weeks for Sterling to realize he’s in shape and ready.
“Aljo is looking great. He probably would have went either way but I think that the fact that he’s feeling really good, he’s put in the work,” Iaquinta said in a recent episode of the Anik & Florian Podcast. “Right after that last fight, they kind of threw him right into this one. He was unsure how he would feel at this point.
“And I think we were all just like, ‘Aljo, a couple of weeks from now you’re going to be like, “Wow, I’m ready to go,”‘ and that’s exactly what happened. He took those two weeks off, he came back and now he’s in shape. He’s looking like an absolute monster, the best he’s looked in the gym, so he’s going into this one super confident. I think stylistically, it’s a great fight for him.”
In what is being dubbed as a striker vs. grappler fight, Iaquinta sees Sterling as a bad matchup for O’Malley.
“I know for a fact that O’Malley has never fought anyone near as good as Aljo, as tricky as Aljo, as cerebral in the cage as Aljo and as unorthodox,” Iaquinta said. “He’s never seen the striking. He’s never seen the movement – in every facet of the game. And then you get to his bread and butter – the grappling. God forbid this guy gets ahold of him. It’s not going to look good for O’Malley.”
[lawrence-related id=2669979,2669941,2668259,2667850]
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 292.