The Suga Show tops on TV with Sean O’Malley’s UFC 292 championship win

Sean O’Malley is — to borrow from his Lupe Fiasco walkout song — what he꧒ says he is: a “Superstar.”

Have no fear; the Suga Show is here, and it’s glittering with gold after the prodigious striker finally ascended to the throne he long has been tabbed to claim. A perfectly timed counter right down the pipe paved the way to dethrone Aljamain Sterling from the bantamwe𓄧ight perch in the UFC 292 main event early Sunday morning.

And if O’M🌜alley has it his way♊, his Show has 12 seasons mapped out.

“This is just the beginning of the Suga Era,” O’Malley said in the octagon afterward. “I’m running this s–t till 2035, baby.”

Seemingly every fight fan in Boston had thrown its support behind Montana native O’Malley, who leans into his Irish-American identity in a way befitting of Beantown. Not even Sterling’s uncharacteristic decision to counter the new champ’s pink-dominant rainbow hair with a dark green dye job could keep TD Garden from a vociferous “f–k you Aljo” chant.

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His first words to the maꦛsses after the gold prize was wrapped around him? A screaming “W꧃hat’s up, Boston?”

Clearly🅘, he’s got at least one major market tuning into the Showღ.

The cold open to the Suga Show was just tha💝t: cold. The challenger spent the majority of the round feinting and moving, drawing exaggerated reactions from Sterling but failing to land much in the way of effective offense. Not that the champ did a lot betteꦯr, although all three judges likely favored the kicks he landed and a mini flourish of offense in the clinch as the first round ticked down.

The second frame’s pace picked up, although little of consequence landed … at least until a social media post from yours truly obscured the bottom right corner of TV screens and the action exploded.

🦄Sterling wildly rushed forward with a big swing-and-miss straight right, exposing himself to a swift, nasty O’Malley right hand counter that face-planted the champ barely 30 seconds into the frame. Suga swarmed with calculated standing hammer fists as Aljo swiveled with all he could muster to put his leg🐽s in the way.

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It wasn’t enough for the Long Island product who had piled up ﷽three consecutive title defenses at 135 pounds in 2022 and ’23. O’Malley kept coming, alternating hammers to sniper shots until referee Marc🎉 Goddard waived off the action.

“I was a little nervous for this fight,” O’Malley said, “but I never lost confidence because I know what I possess in this f–king right hand, baby.”

Content warning: The Suga Show contains coarse language. And violence; definitely 🌃violence.

Emphatic knockouts are nothing new for O’Malley. Th🥀is one goes down as a TKO, but it’s no less impressive than the time he walloped Eddie Wineland three years ago in his first test against a former member of the bantamweight upper-crust. Or when he flattended Thomas Almeida, once a rising star but never one with such a bright future as the colorful —🐻 both in hair and personality — O’Malley.

“I said going into this fight, it only takes one mistake against me,” said the cocksure new champ. “I don’t even know if that was a mistake [Sterling made]; I’m just that f–king good.”

O’Malley’s gain is Sterling’s loss, as Aljo’s show was abruptly canceled just before a planned re𒐪vamp. The Uniondale, N.Y., native had been vocal about a desire to leave behind the deep weight cuts of 135 pounds and, after an anticipated win in Boston, move up to challenge Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight cr🥃own.

So much for that.

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“Definite♍ly gotta go back and reassess some things beca🧜use, if he caught me like that, I can only imagine what Volkanovski would do,” Sterling said in the cage, where he was gracious to his opponent and classy in defeat. “There’s some real soul searching I’ve gotta do.”

The loss does nothing to ding Sterling’s status in the all-time bantamweight hierarchy. A good show doesn’t have to lose its luster just because it’s over, after all. O’Malley reiterated his belief that his felled opponent is “⛎the best bantamweight of all-time.”

A rematch could be in the cards — Sterling’s stated preference in speaking with reporters later — as could a matchup against Sterling teammate Merab Dvalishvili. Cory Sandhagen, a savvy striker who figures to create a compelling clash of styles, remains an option.

The first man on O’Malley’s mind for the next episode, though, was the only man to hold a victory over hiꦺm: Marlon “Chito” Vera, who notched a TKO two months after the Wineland fight and also was victorious hours earlier Saturday.

The newly-gilded showman asked rhetorically if🦄 Vera’s victory over Pedro Munhoz was boring, answering himself it probably had been before suggesting how a rematch would go later this year.

“I’ll whoop Chito’s ass in December in [Las] Vegas at T-Mobile [Arena]. Let’s f–king go, baby!”

Don’t touch that dial. The Suga Show is getting very interesting.