Former UFC bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling has sent a warning to Sean O’Malley’s head coach, Tim Welch, following an online back-and-forth between the two.
This past week, a video surfaced online from the finishing sequence in the Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley fight back at UFC 292, last August.
In the video ‘Suga’s’ head coach, Tim Welch, is shown to be shouting ‘You’ve got to go Aljo’, moments before Sterling attempted to close the distance, subsequently getting dropped and finished.
Although ‘Funkmaster’ claimed that Welch’s words did not affect him during the fight, the two went on to have a back-and-forth online, re-sparking the feud between the two teams.
Aljamain Sterling warns Tim Welch after re-sparking the rivalry
Despite Sterling and O’Malley having seemingly settled their beef in the cage, the recent online feud seems to have resurfaced their rivalry.
Following his title loss, the 34-year-old claimed that he was at a disadvantage because of having to make the quick turnaround. ‘Funkmaster’ has doubled down on that claim, suggesting the result would be different if they ran it back.
“The only thing I can say is yeah, you should’ve ran it back and made the playing field even this time and we’d see if you had the last laugh still.” Sterling explained in his recent YouTube video.
This isn’t the first time Sterling has gone back and forth with a rival head coach. Before his title defense against Henry Cejudo last year, the former champion and his team had a hotel scuffle with ‘Triple C’ and his team.
‘Funkmaster’ has now sent a warning to Tim Welch, for getting himself involved in the fighters’ business.
“I said this about Henry Cejudo’s camp when you have all your teammates, your coaches, and your friends and family that are now chiming in, talking s***, throwing shade, and casting stones, you now make yourself a viable target, whether that’s physically or verbally.
“Someone in your crew talks s*** and someone else is with you and they talk s***, they are with you. That person is liable to get smacked, punched, kicked whatever, jumped beat up, the whole nine. You’re fair game for everybody.” Sterling added.
Although Sterling has moved up to featherweight, the feud between the teams won’t simmer, as O’Malley is set to defend his title against Sterling’s teammate, Merab Dvalishvili next.
‘Suga’ Sean made it known that he wanted his fight against Dvalishvili to take place at UFC 306, but the date has yet to be confirmed by the promotion.
Aljamain Sterling is close to a title shot at featherweight
At UFC 300 earlier this year, Sterling finally made his move up to featherweight to take on ranked contender, Calvin Kattar.
After dominating Kattar over three rounds the 34-year-old earned himself a spot in the top 15 of the division, debuting at rank eight.
The former bantamweight champion was called out by Movsar Evloev, with him seemingly having to wait for his title shot to come. Despite that, Sterling likened a fight with Brian Ortega instead, with that likely being a number-one contender fight.
On Monday, the Longo MMA product said on X, “I like the match-up for name value. He’s (Ortega) very popular and can grapple. There’s no way that would not be a fun fight.”