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Former UFC champion shares details after receiving surprising praise from rival after recent win… ‘You look good’

Originally posted on Bloody Elbow | By Kyle Dimond | Last updated Sep 1, 2025 9:30 AM ET

Aljamain Sterling didn’t expect to receive a positive message from a fellow fighter.

At UFC Shanghai, Sterling produced a dominant win over Brian Ortega in the featherweight co-main event.

This was the 36-year-old’s first outing of 2025 and his second victory in the weight class after moving up from the bantamweight division last year.

While Sterling is currently dealing with an injury that he suffered in the fight, the former bantamweight champion is still spending some time around his close friend and teammate, Merab Dvalishvili.

It was in the current bantamweight champion’s latest video where ‘Funk Master’ shared details of a message that he received after his latest win.

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Aljamain Sterling reveals what Sean O’Malley said to him after his UFC Shanghai win

While Aljamain Sterling has given Sean O’Malley some respect, there are still several aspects of their previous fight that bother him to this day.

‘Funk Master’ lost the bantamweight title to ‘Suga’ when they met in the main event of UFC 292 in August of 2023.

Despite everything that has been said between them, that didn’t stop O’Malley from reaching out to his former opponent to congratulate him on his latest win.

Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Sterling spoke about the DM he received and got Merab Dvalishvili to read it out during the bantamweight champion’s latest YouTube video.

“He sent me a nice message. Holy s—. You look good. Nasty jab. Creative. Strong, beautiful performance.”

Sterling admitted that he didn’t reply to the message, though he joked that he should have asked his former rival to remove something that has been bothering him.

“I was like, what am I supposed to say? I should have said, take my f—— picture off your wall. His podcast, he’s got my head on his wall.”

Aljamain Sterling recently said the financial incentive to face Sean O’Malley wasn’t worth it

Ahead of UFC 292, Aljamain Sterling had made it pretty clear that he didn’t want to make a quick turnaround to defend his title against Sean O’Malley.

‘Funk Master’ was eventually talked into the idea, with footage of the negotiations showing that the financial incentive for taking the fight was a big factor in making it happen.

Behind the scenes video of Hunter Campbell going after Aljamain Sterling for not being confident about wanting to fight Sean O'Malley.

This is a golden content ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/twnugGVkhS
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) June 8, 2024

Sterling recently stated on the Pound 4 Pound podcast that if he could have seen how much money he would’ve actually made from the fight, his answer would’ve been very different.

“One of the deciding factors in me finally bending the knee and saying yes to this fight to my manager was that they thought O’Malley was going to sell a million PPVs… Brother, if I had known, if I had a crystal ball to tell me, ‘You’re only going to sell this amount,’ I’d be like, ‘Yeah, go f— yourself’.”