Daniel Cormier thinks Sean O'Malley’s title-winning performance is eerily similar to Conor McGregor’s.
O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) landed a perfect counter right to drop and stop bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling (23-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) by Round 2 TKO in this past Saturday’s UFC 292 headliner at TD Garden in Boston.
O’Malley called the finish, and his stoppage of Sterling drew plenty of comparisons to McGregor’s 13-second knockout of former featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
“I talked to Sean about what the perfect night looks like,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “‘What does Saturday night look like, Sean? What is ideal for you? How does your story come to a conclusion this weekend?’ He said, ‘I’m going to knock him out.’ And it’s hard to envision that when you talk about a guy in Aljamain Sterling that hasn’t been knocked out since he got knocked out by a knee.
“Sean O’Malley did it with a punch. He was able to expertly slide out of range (and) land a right hand that ended the night of the former champion. (TD Garden) was on fire for this kid. He is – no bullsh*t – he is almost the second coming of McGregor.”
Like McGregor, O’Malley always dreamed of becoming a big star and making a lot of money. He was also able to dethrone a long-reigning champion in Sterling, just like McGregor did when he knocked out Aldo.
“And when I say the second coming of McGregor, that’s a really good thing,” Cormier said. “He should not fight those comparisons. As he said on the interview, Conor’s rich, Conor does great business, Conor does this. Sean O’Malley can do all those same things. He proved (Saturday) that he also has the fighting ability to not only win a championship, but possibly reign atop this division for a long time because the man he beat tonight was a guy that has the most (bantamweight) title defenses in the history of the (UFC).”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 292.
