Although UFC President Dana White announced his next title defense for the promotions return to Boston in August at UFC 292 earlier this week, reigning bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling, isn't fully committed to the booking yet.
Sterling addressed the news of his scheduled matchup with "Suga" Sean O'Malley on the latest episode of his podcast The Weekly Scraps on Thursday, explaining that he's verbally agreed to the bout but is also dealing with a slew of injuries currently that could prevent him from making such a quick turnaround. The 33-year-old New York native defeated former two-division champion, Henry Cejudo, via a split-decision at UFC 288 earlier this month.
"I'm still injured with my legs banged up," Sterling said. "My bicep still sucks. I'm supposed to get another MRI on that. I'm trying to get to this fight in August. We've talked a little bit about it and we're trying to see if we can make it happen. But my leg is still super sensitive to the touch. I hope I'm not ruining anything by me saying that, but guys I did just fight. The swelling has gone down a lot. I can actually do a flex of my foot, but it's still very stiff. I've done PT once in the sauna one time, and I did an ice bath yesterday afternoon at Hofstra. So I think that helped out a ton with the swelling for sure. I don't know, we're going to see. My shins are super sensitive. Like even just me touching it right now, they feel mushy almost. I can push and make a dent in my leg. You ever have something that's squishy and you squeeze it and it leaves your handprint? That's what I can do with my shin bone right now. It's pretty crappy. I'm hoping the sensitivity of that is gone in a couple of days. Then we can make sure that this is gonna happen for real, for reals. I told them yes, verbally agreed. But of course, my body has to agree. We'll see, you guys have the inside scoop. I'm gonna try to make this happen. This would be a sick, insane turnaround. But where there's a will, there's a way."
Fightful has all of your MMA needs covered. Follow us on Twitter for updates, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for ‘Fightful Fight Night’ watch-alongs for all major MMA and Boxing events!