Aljamain Sterling confident he can give UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski 'a run for his money'

Aljamain Sterling weighed in on whether he could pose a challenge to UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and believes he would have a great chance of becoming a two-division champion.

During his appearance on The MMA Hour, Sterling spoke about a potential move to 145lbs in the future and why he didn't call out Volkanovski following his win over Henry Cejudo at UFC 288. He mentioned that he didn't feel as though his performance was up to his standards, so he refrained from issuing a challenge.

He said:

"There's a reason I didn't call him out, cause it wasn't the performance that I want to have to kind of keep him on notice. But you know, let me do this one [fight with Sean O'Malley]...in a better fashion and there's a couple of technical things I did wrong and instantly I was like this is nowhere near the way I look in sparring."

'FunkMaster' also brought up that he intends to showcase his skills and have a much better outing in his next title defense against Sean O'Malley. The reigning bantamweight champion mentioned that he believes he could move to 145 lbs and hold his own with the top fighters in the division, saying:

"I do know, clean these things up. If I look the way I look in sparring, I give [Alexander] Volkanovski a run for his money, I give Yair Rodriguez a run for their money. But I wanna make sure not just giving them a run for their money, I wanna make sure when I get in there that I know and I believe that I could beat these guys."

It seems like Sterling has his sights set on moving to featherweight after his next fight with O'Malley, so it will be interesting to see if he earns an immediate title shot.

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When is the UFC targeting Aljamain Sterling vs. Sean O'Malley?

It appears as though the bantamweight title fight between Aljamain Sterling and Sean O'Malley is being targeted for the upcoming UFC pay-per-view in Boston, which is scheduled to take place in August.

It would be a quick turnaround for 'FunkMaster' as it only gives him a little over three months to prepare. During his appearance on The MMA Hour, the bantamweight champion mentioned that he will evaluate how he feels physically this coming week before agreeing to defend his title in August.

He said:

"I'm banged up. I got some things, you know, the usual...If I could start training next week, I think it's possible."

Sterling vs O'Malley will be an iconic bout given the status of both.