Sterling ‘Still Injured,’ O’Malley Title Fight Not A Guarantee

Aljamain Sterling hopes to make an “insane” turnaround after his recent title defense.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced this week (Tues., May 16, 2023) that UFC 292 will act as the promotion’s return to Boston, Massachusetts on Aug. 19, 2023. In the main event, the Bantamweight title will be on the line when the reigning champion, Sterling, faces the No. 2-ranked contender, “Sugar” Sean O’Malley.

That’s the plan anyway…

Despite UFC President, Dana White, going public with the news, Sterling, 33, reveals he’s relatively banged up after his recent split decision win over Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 two weeks ago (May 6, 2023).

“I’m still injured with my legs banged up, my bicep still sucks, I’m supposed to get another MRI on that,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “I’m trying to get to this fight in August. We’ve talked a little bit about it and we’re trying to see if we can make it happen, but my leg is still super sensitive to the touch. I hope I’m not ruining anything by me saying that.

“Guys, I did just fight,” he continued. “The swelling has gone down a lot. I can actually do a flex with my foot, but it’s still very stiff. I’ve done PT once in the sauna one time and I did an ice bath last night. Well, yesterday afternoon. So, I think that helped out a ton with the swelling, for sure. I don’t know. We’re gonna see. My shins are super sensitive. Even just me touching it right now. They feel like mushy almost. I can make a dent in my leg.”

Sterling added that he has verbally agreed to the bout, but needs to make sure his body can agree, too. The champion equates the situation to the recent pairing between former Flyweight titleholder, Deiveson Figueiredo, and Manel Kape, which looked to be booked for UFC 290 on July 8, 2023, but Figueiredo had yet to be medically cleared.

Going forward, the “Funkmaster” is just hoping that the sensitivity in his legs goes down in the coming days and that he can make sure the fight is all good to go by next week.