Aljamain
Sterling doesn’t think a newfound sense of discipline will help
Sean
O’Malley (18-2) against Merab
Dvalishvili (19-4).
O’Malley has always been known for his flashy lifestyle, which
included smoking marijuana. However, things have
seemingly changed for “Suga” since he lost his title to
Dvalishvili at UFC
306 last year.
O’Malley will get chance to reclaim his title against Dvalishvili
in the main event at UFC 316
on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The
former champ, rather uncharacteristically, recently thanked
Dvalishvili for making him a better fighter and human being by
beating him. O’Malley also claims to have introduced major
lifestyle changes going into his rematch against “The Machine.”
O’Malley claims he hasn’t masturbated or smoked marijuana this
year.
However, Dvalishvili’s teammate Sterling doesn’t think any of that
will matter. The former bantamweight champ believes it will all
eventually come down to a difference of skill set. If anything,
“Funkmaster” believes O’Malley could probably feel good about
leaving no stone unturned in preparing for the rematch.
“I don’t think this is necessarily gonna make a big difference for
O’Malley… I just don’t think that that’s gonna be the difference
maker,” Sterling said on “The Weekly Scraps” podcast. “It’s the
skill set. Can you deal with the pressure and the pace of a guy
like Merab?… Not j-ing the peen, giving up marijuana — I don’t
know is these things will make a big difference. Maybe he’ll feel
better that he did everything possible under the sun to get this
win. But does that actually matter?”
While O’Malley hasn’t fought since losing his title, Dvalishvili
has defended the belt against a previously undefeated Umar
Nurmagomedov at UFC 311
earlier this year.