Sean O’Malley took the “Jake Paul route” to the UFC title

Aljamain Sterling compares UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley’s rise in popularity to that of Jake Paul.

Sterling lost his bantamweight title via knockout to O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) at UFC 292. The title loss came less than four months after Sterling defeated Henry Cejudo in a five-round bout at UFC 288.

Sterling is not convinced by O’Malley’s resume. He believes that the UFC made it easier for him to get to the top.

“I want to see the best of the best compete, no excuses,” Sterling said on the “Verse Us with Eric Nicksick” podcast. “Now here comes O’Malley. He’s fighting a high-level opponent and he gets a title shot — albeit by split decision. And that’s not hate speech. I’m just calling a spade a spade. He was supposed to fight me next, which would have given me enough time to prepare. But instead they’re saying Cejudo is coming back, we want you to fight him. In the back of their minds they’re thinking whoever wins, we’re going to turn him around for August.

“So he knows all that. I’m pretty sure he knows all that. Only O’Malley could reveal that, right? Or at least the UFC knew that was what they wanted to do, no matter what. Give him the best possible chance to become world champion by hampering his opponent and stacking the deck against him. As a competitor, I can never respect that – as a man, as a competitor. It’s like Jake Paul. Stacking the deck so you can get those highlights or those favorable matchups and those wins to look as good as you do.”

Sterling particularly took issue with O’Malley’s first title defense, which came against Marlon Vera – the only fighter to defeat him. O’Malley pounded Vera for five rounds to earn his first title defense at UFC 299 in March.

“O’Malley could be a great champion, but for him to fight No. 6 ranked ‘Chito’ and then give a lesson – OK, great,” Sterling said. “But again, you have to stack your cards and have favorable matchups so you look and feel like you’re ‘him.'”

“He should have fought Merab (Dvalishvili) first before facing ‘Chito.’ … You have an easier title defense against a guy who you are clearly worlds ahead of. Stylistically, the guy is not going to try to take you down. He can’t take you down because he has no wrestling ability and he’s ranked No. 6. He doesn’t even deserve to be there.”

O’Malley will next fight Sterling’s training partner Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC). The duo headline UFC 306 on September 14 at the Sphere in Las Vegas.