“Yes, I’ve seen talk about an early stoppage,” O’Malley said in an interview with Pat McAfee. “Nobody who wanted me to win is saying it was an early stoppage. That’s mostly what the people who were cheering against me are saying. The same people were saying I didn’t beat Peter Yan because they didn’t want me to beat him. I could have gone out and killed someone and they would have said, ‘He could have been resurrected'”
Having knocked Sterling down with a right jab early in the second round, O’Malley realized that his opponent was shaken enough that he could close in and safely finish him in the parterre.
“I landed a right punch. I’ve knocked out enough people to know when a man is down, and he wasn’t, but I knew for a fact that he was seriously shaken. If I dropped him and wasn’t sure he was shaken, I wouldn’t go after him because I knew how dangerous he was even on his back. Ideally he prefers to be on top, but this guy can work on his back too, he’s a black belt. He’s good in all aspects. I knew I shook him enough to be able to work hammerfists. My arm hurts a lot right now because it bounced off his head 17 times.”
The lightweight title fight, which headlined last weekend’s UFC 292 event in Boston, ended at the 0:51 mark of the second round with Sean O’Malley winning by technical knockout.