Daniel Cormier thinks Sean O’Malley should be next for UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.
O’Malley (16-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) jumped to the No. 1 spot in the bantamweight rankings when he edged out former champion Petr Yan this past Saturday at UFC 280. One fight later, Sterling (22-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) dominated T.J. Dillashaw to retain his title by second-round TKO.
At the post-fight news conference, UFC president Dana White floated the idea of returning former dual-champ Henry Cejudo (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) being next for Sterling. But Cormier thinks O’Malley has earned the title shot.
“I would consider making Sterling’s next fight Sean O’Malley right now,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Right now, I would think, let’s do Sean O’Malley. Yesterday on DC & RC, I said it’s going to be Henry Cejudo, and I believe that because Sean O’Malley’s going to need some time to recover because that was a war against Petr Yan.
“I still would think about maybe making this guy next because regardless of what you feel and how you feel the fight was judged, at the end of the day, Sean O’Malley got his hand raised. For the sport, Henry Cejudo, as the guy that left as a double champion, should be next. But it’s more than likely to be Sean O’Malley.”
Cormier explained that O’Malley should be the No. 1 contender because he’s a bigger draw than Cejudo, making him a more lucrative fight for Sterling.
“Sean O’Malley will be the bigger fight for the champion,” Cormier said. “It’s that simple. It is what it is because the reality is, part of the retirement for Cejudo was, dude’s competing for a long time at the highest level, but the reality is he wanted more money and that didn’t happen. Why? Because he hasn’t moved the needle as much as he hoped for, or he thought he did.”
