Video: Watch Sean O’Malley practice epic counter punch used to knockout Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 — ‘Literally McGregor-Aldo’

Sean O’Malley is UFC’s newest Bantamweight champion ... and he used the classic step back counter punch Conor McGregor used on Jose Aldo to do it.

McGregor starched Aldo with almost exactly the same move in their lightning-fast, 13-second fight back in 2015. Aldo — infuriated after a two year build-up to their fight — charged in on McGregor at the start of their fight. McGregor hit him with a pinpoint accurate left hand that dropped “Scarface” to the canvas, ending their match before it even really got started.

O’Malley vs. Aljamain Sterling — UFC 292’s pay-per-view (PPV) main event this past weekend (Sat., Apri 19, 20230 in Boston — lasted a bit longer. Their first round saw both men carefully feeling out each other, with “Suga” keeping distance and frustrating “Funkmaster” the few times they actually clinched. In the second round, an impatient Sterling lunged in on O’Malley, only for “Suga” to step back and land a big right hand that dropped him. The referee stepped in after O’Malley dropped an endless amount of ground-and-pound on the now-former champion (watch full fight and finish here).

In new backstage footage from UFC 292’s locker rooms inside TD Garden, you can watch O’Malley and his coach, Tim Welch, drilling the move. The footage was released by O’Malley’s sponsor Sanabul:

During UFC 292’s post-fight show on ESPN+, O’Malley credited McGregor with giving him inspiration for the winning sequence.

“That was literally Jose Aldo vs. Conor,” O’Malley said. “The way he stepped back Southpaw, threw that left hand, I was picturing that all night, all week.”

During the post-fight press conference (watch replay here), Sterling admitted he got a bit too impatient after the first round.

“He stayed disciplined to his gameplan, and I kind of let trying to be a little bit more of an exciting style for the fans play a factor,” he said. “We’ve seen the Izzy vs. Yoel Romero fight. We’ve seen bad fights before, where it’s like not much happens, because no one wants to make that grave mistake. I made the mistake, Sean capitalized. I paid for it.”

At this level, all it takes is one small mistake. O’Malley was waiting for Sterling to lunge in ... and Sterling paid for it with his belt.

For complete UFC 292 results, coverage and highlights, click HERE.