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Aljamain Sterling, the UFC bantamweight champion, will make a short turnaround in time for UFC 292, the promotion's first visit back to Boston in four years.
The promotion's customary venue for events in Boston, TD Garden, will host UFC 292 on August 19. ESPN+ will broadcast the pay-per-view event. On Tuesday afternoon, UFC President Dana White made the announcement about the event on the promotion's YouTube account.
The No. 1 bantamweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, Sterling, defends his belt against No. 3 Sean O'Malley as projected. Following Sterling's championship defence against former champion Henry Cejudo earlier this month, the two squared off. The bantamweight champion has decided to make room for a quick return versus O'Malley.
“Supposedly, from what I’m being told behind the scenes, Dana is really going to stack this card,” Sterling said. “And if he stacks this card, that’s a good motivator in itself to be on a big card, because you don’t get pay-per-view points if you’re not the champ. So it’s like, there’s a lot of things that go into this. And to drag a guy like O’Malley down, what’s this guy going to do to me? Really?
“I’m not trying to be disrespectful, it’s a subtle jab, but it’s the truth. It’s a fight, anything could happen. But at the end of the day, I think we all know what his kryptonite is, and it’s unproven in the octagon. We’ve seen him one time on his back and he was like a fish out on land. ‘Chito’ [Marlon Vera] smashed him and sent him home. I think ‘Chito’ might have hit him one time, and his eyes rolled back in his head. That’s not a good sign.”
In the co-headliner, No. 1 ranked strawweight Zhang Weili defends her title against No. 5 Amanda Lemos, who’s won her past two fights including a stoppage of Marina Rodriguez in her most recent appearance.