UFC 292 takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, this weekend and is headlined by the dominant Bantamweight Champion, Aljamain Sterling. ‘Funkmaster’ defends his belt against Contender Series alumni turned top contender ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley. We break down what is expected to be a classic ‘striker vs grappler’ matchup.
Sean O’Malley’s strengths
Let’s start with his dynamic striking. Comfortable with both his left and right sides, he looks deceivingly unorthodox due to his height, gangly frame, and appearance. In reality, he is measured, controlled, and highly efficient.
O’Malley does a great job at disguising his strikes due to the flexibility in his hips. When he sets himself in motion to throw what looks like a low kick, he can very quickly shoot the leg up the middle while his opponent has already anticipated the kick to his shins. Set-ups are O’Malley’s specialty, and it will be interesting to see if his past success translates into a title fight against the unorthodox Aljamain Sterling.
With the highest significant strike accuracy in UFC’s Bantamweight history, O’Malley will fancy his chances at landing on Sterling. His long reach and ability to break his opponent’s guard with effective looping shots could play a factor in this fight. O’Malley will be wary of getting too close to Sterling due to the champion’s grappling prowess. Keeping Sterling at a distance is easier said than done, particularly in a five-round fight – ask Cory Sandhagen or Henry Cejudo.
Aljamain Sterling’s strengths
Although he is known as a world-class grappler, there is much more to his game than this; there has to be if you’re as dominant a champion as Funkmaster. Sterling’s striking has noticeably improved during the past couple of years, and he shares more similarities with his opponent in this department than people realize.
Like O’Malley, his kicks are difficult to read thanks to his ability to change stances quickly. Sterling’s style is just as, if not more, unpredictable than O’Malley’s, as his opponents always anticipate Sterling’s intention to wrestle. When in retreat, Sterling has a killer right-hand counterjab which made it difficult for his previous challengers to find a rhythm when sharing the octagon with him. Fighters don’t know how Sterling will move, which leads them to get caught in two minds due to overthinking.
If it were easy to work out the Funkmaster style, you would have thought he’d have been figured out by this point. Even the Olympic Champion and two-weight UFC Champion, Henry Cejudo, struggled to establish flow in his recent defeat to Sterling. While O’Malley doesn’t have the experience or accolades that Cejudo has, he has a much longer reach, so he may have more success with his counters.
Keys to victory
The champion will succeed if he can get O’Malley against the cage; He has some of the best grappling and back control in the UFC. Once Sterling is on your back, if he doesn’t manage to submit you, you can bet your bottom dollar he will win the round.
O’Malley likes to fight in the center of the Octagon and pressure his opponents. If he can read the level changes and prevent Sterling from securing under hooks, he will have success. Don’t sleep on O’Malley’s grappling, either. He’s a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and displayed fantastic takedown defense against Petr Yan, but it will be a smart move to try and keep Sterling at a distance for as much of the fight as possible.
As we said at the beginning of this article – it’s a striker (Sean O’Malley) vs. grappler (Aljamain Sterling.) Whichever man can assert their strength better will win the fight.
Our prediction
Picking a winner is tough, but we’re not fence-sitters here at MMAherd.
We see O’Malley starting well, outscoring Sterling early on in the fight. It will be tough to nullify Sterling’s grappling for twenty-five minutes, and as the fight enters the championship rounds, Sterling will begin to succeed against the cage and get O’Malley to the ground.
Aljamain Sterling to win via decision.
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