By UFC Bantamweight standouts Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley are set to do battle this August for Sterling’s UFC Bantamweight Title, but the fighters aren’t waiting until the summer to start exchanging blows, with each firing off angry shots at their opponent for thinking they have any say in what happens instead of just accepting that there is simply no way to say no to whatever Dana White wants.
“He acts likes he calls the shots! I’m listening to the UFC, I’m not acting like I call the shot. Dana said August, so I said August. It’s not like I told Dana ‘Hey, fucking run it in August, I’m the man, I run this shit.’ I said ‘Hey, Uncle Dana,’ I didn’t call him ‘Daddy Dana’ like he says. I said, ‘Uncle Dana,'” said O’Malley, a distinction he found to be important and exculpatory of any claims he’s a timid little company man.
“As I said, I’m going to show up Aug. 19, not because of you, not because of the fans, I’m showing up because Dana is cutting the check for Aug. 19. Other than that, you call no shots, I call no shots, so let’s stop pretending all this other nonsense,” quipped back Sterling, the division champion in a sport in which a former champion made news last week by cashing in big on his gambit to exert control over his own career while in possession of the leverage which comes from holding a UFC belt.
For his part, White has clearly picked a favorite, preferring the polish-job on offer from O’Malley to Sterling’s efforts, chastising the champion for having a body that may get injured and offering to instead book an interim bout if Sterling is going to insist on a lengthy four-month break between defenses.
