After UFC 288 came to a close, Aljamain Sterling invited Sean O’Malley to the octagon for a faceoff. The situation was tense and escalated quickly, with heated words exchanged between O’Malley and Sterling. UFC officials stepped in to prevent the situation from exploding, but things almost turned worse when Sterling’s teammate, Merab Dvalishvili, grabbed O’Malley’s jacket before posing himself.

O’Malley confronted Dvalishvili, and Sterling got involved before the situation was defused. UFC President Dana White took responsibility for inviting O’Malley into the cage so soon after Sterling’s win, acknowledging it wasn’t a great idea and could have gone much worse. 

O’Malley wasn’t too pleased with Dvalishvili’s actions and appeared dismissive of him. However, Dvalishvili is a significant bantamweight contender, and if he ever gets the opportunity to fight Sterling and win, he’ll likely be gunning for O’Malley next. 

Regarding Sterling’s win over Henry Cejudo, O’Malley thought the latter deserved victory, and felt lucky he wasn’t in the octagon with him because he would have knocked him out. He believes Sterling and Cejudo were fighting for the chance to face him because he’s the biggest matchup for either of them. White hopes to schedule the next bantamweight title fight, featuring Sterling and O’Malley, for the August pay-per-view in Boston.