Sean O'Malley knocks out Aljamain Sterling to claim UFC bantamweight title

“Suga” Sean O’Malley knocked out UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling to claim the belt in a wild exchange.

O’Malley, formerly the No. 2 ranked fighter at the weight class, was the challenger at UFC 292 in Boston. He landed a perfectly timed right hand right across the face of Sterling.

Sterling, the overwhelming favorite and considered the best champion in the weight class’s history, went down immediately and tried to defend. The knockout can be seen below.

THE FULL @SUGASEANMMA KNOCKOUT!

A right hand that will live on in UFC history at #UFC292! pic.twitter.com/jM5MkPTxqK

— UFC (@ufc) August 20, 2023

“Punching backwards is a skill not a lot of people possess and I can punch going backwards and I knew he was going to be pressuring me and I know he likes to throw to shoot,” O’Malley said post fight. “He likes to throw for me to counter so he can shoot under. So I knew he was going to be lunging in with shots.

“It really wasn’t even a bad punch that he threw, it’s just I’m that (expletive) accurate. I sniped him. I’ve been saying all week, I’m a sniper. I’m going to snipe his chin. I’m going to find it and there we were. That’s definitely a punch I visualized all week.”

Many thought O’Malley’s run to the belt came with the aid of UFC president Dana White. The highest quality opponent O’Malley defeated along the way was former champion Petr Yan.

“There is no such thing as Dana White privilege in this company,” White said during the post fight press conference. “O’Malley got the title shot because he earned it. When you think about the fight and you think about Sterling, you say to yourself, ‘how does Sean beat that guy?’… You never know man, styles make fights and things happen in fights that you sometimes don’t expect.

“Bruce Springsteen just played here and did $5 million, we did $7 million… This is also the biggest bantamweight championship fight ever on PPV globally… O’Malley isn’t going to be a star; he IS a star!”

O’Malley improved to 17-1 (1 NC) in his career. His lone loss came to Marlon “Chito” Vera back on August 16, 2020. Vera won earlier in the evening and O’Malley proceeded to call him out for a rematch.

Sterling fell to 23-4 in his career after three title defenses over Yan and former champions TJ Dillishaw and Henry Cejudo.

O’Malley went from viral sensation during Dana White’s Contender Series in 2017 to quite the UFC career and now bantamweight champion.