Aljamain Sterling is just as interesting as someone who has Sean O’Malley getting another championship opportunity.
The UFC was not competitive in the UFC 316 main event in Newark, New Jersey, with Merab DValishVili’s next bantamweight title defense against O’Malley (the main event of Man Dvalishvili 316 to win the belt). I went to dvalishvili last September.
Sterling’s best friend and teammate Dvalishvili recorded his first successful title defense at UFC 311 in January, continuing to stand by hip surgery. Sterling took him to social media to comment that O’Malley was given a rematch right away.
Honest answer, UFC is going to do the best thing for your business and brand. Due to the situation that enters the first fight, would I prefer a rematch soon? absolutely. But I understand business models better than most, and O’Malley is a really exciting guy… https://t.co/iaqamkweas
– Aljamain Sterling (@funkmastermma) April 2, 2025
“An honest answer, UFC is going to do the best for business and brands,” Sterling wrote in response to a Twitter question. “Would you prefer a rematch soon because of the situation that gets into the first fight? But I understand the business model better than most people. O’Malley is a truly exciting guy who beat many top five candidates.
At first it sounded like Sterling was defending O’Malley, but in his follow-up tweet he made it clear that he was cynical when discussing O’Malley’s in-cage admiration.
Sterling and O’Malley have their own history, with O’Malley defeating Sterling with a two-round TKO at 292 and becoming Bantamweight Champion at UFC 292. Sterling then moved to the Featherweight Division, where he won at Calvin Kattar and lost to Movsar Evloev.
As June 7 rolls, Sterling is almost certainly in the corner of dvalishvili and witnesses first-hand that he expects another winning performance by “The Machine.” However, he doesn’t want the fans to worry about O’Malley. Because even if there was another loss to dvalishvili, Sterling jokingly suggested he could run again.
You provide him with a trilogy.