Aljamain Sterling says the UFC tried to make Chito Vera look like a good win for O’Malley. Also says his Ilia callout was “ridiculous”
Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling has accused the promotion of artificially inflating Chito Vera’s ranking to make Sean O’Malley’s win over him at UFC 299 look better than it was.
In a video rant, Sterling claimed Vera was not even ranked in the top 5 before being moved up specifically for the O’Malley title shot, questioning who Vera had beaten to justify such a high ranking.
“They moved him up to the top five to make it look like it was better, like he fought a top five opponent. How did Chido move up in the ranking? Who did he beat to move up in the ranking?” Sterling said.
The UFC bantamweight champ also took issue with O’Malley’s callout of UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, dismissing it as “ridiculous.”
“I think it’s kind of ridiculous for him to say, Dana get the jet to Spain. Like what are you talking about dude?” Sterling vented.
While Sterling acknowledged that any UFC win takes “balls”, he argued that beating an unranked opponent should not be seen as that impressive for a champion like O’Malley.
“Yeah you won, but you won against a guy that we were all expecting you to beat. So as a champion, it’s hard for me to put a lot of stock in that because I just can’t respect it as much.”
O’Malley solidified himself as the #1 bantamweight contender with the Vera win, but Sterling seems intent on downplaying the achievement until “Sugar” faces a top contender next.