A perfectly timed right hand paved the way for Sean O’Malley to dethrone Aljamain Sterling from the bantamweight perch in the UFC 292 main event.
Sean O’Malley is — to borrow from his Lupe Fiasco walkout song — what he says he is: a “Superstar.”
Have no fear; the Suga Show is here, and it’s glittering with gold after the prodigious striker finally ascended to the throne he long has been tabbed to claim. A perfectly timed counter right down the pipe paved the way to dethrone Aljamain Sterling from the bantamweight perch in the UFC 292 main event early Sunday morning.
And if O’Malley has it his way, his Show has 12 seasons mapped out.
“This is just the beginning of the Suga Era,” O’Malley said in the octagon afterward. “I’m running this s–t till 2035, baby.”
Seemingly every fight fan in Boston had thrown its support behind Montana native O’Malley, who leans into his Irish-American identity in a way befitting of Beantown. Not even Sterling’s uncharacteristic decision to counter the new champ’s pink-dominant rainbow hair with a dark green dye job could keep TD Garden from a vociferous “f–k you Aljo” chant.
His first words to the masses after the gold prize was wrapped around him? A screaming “What’s up, Boston?”
Clearly, he’s got at least one major market tuning into the Show.
The cold open to the Suga Show was just that: cold. The challenger spent the majority of the round feinting and moving, drawing exaggerated reactions from Sterling but failing to land much in the way of effective offense. Not that the champ did a lot better, although all three judges likely favored the kicks he landed and a mini flourish of offense in the clinch as the first round ticked down.
