Aljamain Sterling confirms move to featherweight with UFC 292 win over Sean O’Malley: “I’m out of here!”

UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling won’t be at 135 pounds after his fight with Sean O’Malley.

‘Funk Master’ is slated to return to the octagon this Saturday night in the main event of UFC 292. There, he will face ‘Sugar’, nearly a year after the bantamweight contender scored a controversial decision win over Petr Yan. For Aljamain Sterling, he’s making a quick turnaround after defeating Henry Cejudo in May.

UFC 292’s main event between Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley promises to be a fun one. However, it’ll also be a historic clash as well, as it could be the champion’s final fight at bantamweight. He revealed that potential featherweight news in a recent interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.

In the interview, Aljamain Sterling stated that he was 99.9% sure that he was done at bantamweight with a win over Sean O’Malley. When asked why, the champion kept his message simple. Firstly, the weight cut is getting to be too much. Secondly, he believes it’s Merab Dvalishvili’s time to reign at 135 pounds.

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“I win this for sure, I’m out of here!” Aljamain Sterling stated when asked about his fight with Sean O’Malley on The MMA Hour. “It’s Merab’s time man, it’s Merab’s time. The second part of that is, I’m a little bit over cutting weight, this much weight. I walk around [1]65, 170, I don’t need to bulk up but I think I can hold that frame relatively better.”

He continued, “I think my conditioning and everything can go up a little bit back to when I was younger. Where, I was cutting less and I could do it in a week and cut 20, 25 pounds. I would compete like an animal, an energizer bunny for days. Now I feel like I’m slowing down a little bit, and that comes with age… I just want to get ahead of it before it gets ahead of me.”

What do you make of these comments from Aljamain Sterling? Do you think he’ll defeat Sean O’Malley at UFC 292?