UFC 292 Aftermath: Sean O'Malley and The Cross Step

The crowning of the new UFC bantamweight king at UFC 292 was nothing short of spectacular. Sean O’Malley completed his seemingly self-fulfilling prophecy and knocked out Aljamain Sterling with a peach of a right hand and some ground-and-pound to rip the belt away. While the first round of the fight seemed uneventful, it wasn’t, and there were some nuances there that led to the finish. In today’s issue of Aftermath, we are looking at the coronation of “Suga.” We will look at how O’Malley used his footwork to keep out of grappling situations and set up Sterling for that fateful right hand that cost him his title.

O’Malley’s Cross Step

One of the things O’Malley is so good at is the cross step, changing from southpaw to orthodox and vice versa to set up strikes from new angles as he moves. This also plays into his defensive gameplan that helped him beat Sterling and keep the grappling to a minimum.

Against a fighter like Sterling, where an ill-timed switch will end with you being taken down, it is important to know when to switch. This means not switching when Sterling is close enough to blitz and grab you but also knowing that switching on the low kick, Sterling’s primary weapon standing up, is also an option. Frequently throughout the fight, O’Malley stepped back as Sterling came forward and threw a low kick, be it inside or outside. This caused Sterling to miss a good quantity, though not all, of the kicks and would have been something O’Malley could build off of as the fight went on.

O’Malley does this out of both stances and at will. In the sequence above, (1) O’Malley starts out in southpaw and Sterling in orthodox. Sterling will want to throw the rear kick around which means an inside low kick is what O’Malley is looking at. (2) As Sterling throws the kick you will notice that O’Malley gets his leg off the floor to minimize the impact and (3) steps back into orthodox. Doing this, he creates space between he and Sterling in case Sterling is looking for a clinch as he presses forward. This also gives O’Malley a chance to plant off that rear foot, letting him throw all his power into a cross at an oncoming opponent. But that’s something we will go over later in the article. Here, O’Malley doesn’t get the chance to fire back as Sterling wisely backs off and doesn’t press the action.

Early in the fight, Sterling was the one pushing O’Malley back. His kicks had O’Malley pushed to the fence where O’Malley would circle out laterally. Eventually, O’Malley began to threaten Sterling as he was against the fence. This led to Sterling not pressing forward as much and allowing O’Malley, who could threaten Sterling as he came forward.

To change the tide, O’Malley (1) would run out of room against the fence with Sterling pressing forward. (2) O’Malley brought his foot back from orthodox but not completely to southpaw. This gives O’Malley the opportunity to circle out laterally if Sterling gets the timing on the cross step. Alternatively, he can show a cross to Sterling (3) which is what he does. What’s different about this is based on O’Malley not stepping back completely into orthodox. He now has the option to step forward with either foot for either stance. He will step forward with his right foot and throws the left cross. This scares Sterling off who steps backwards. To cover more ground, O’Malley brings his rear foot, this time his left, forward and into orthodox. Again, this trickery has Sterling taking a moment of pause to understand what’s going on and that hesitation doesn’t give O’Malley much to work with.

In UFC 292 Beforemath, we talked about the importance of O’Malley not turning his back to Sterling. Sterling is a back control expert and given the opportunity, he will snatch a hook and ride you out. We pointed out in that article that O’Malley turned his back to Petr Yan far too much for our liking and that could be a liability. In the two grappling situations at UFC 292, O’Malley did not turn his back ,which was precisely what the doctor ordered. He put his butt to the fence and fought the hands while trying to scrape Sterling off with the fence, great technique for modern MMA. When Sterling broke hands in both cases, O’Malley pushed on the back of the head and got out of the takedown attempt, a major blow to the champ’s confidence.

Readers of that Beforemath article will recall that O’Malley needed to negate the kicks, which we mentioned checking the kicks or countering with the cross. O’Malley “checked” the kicks by stepping back into the opposite stance, a uniquely O’Malley performance. We also said, as previously mentioned, that turning his back was not the right idea and avoiding that would be paramount. Lastly, we talked about the necessity for Sean O’Malley to concede ground when appropriate. That brings us to the second round.

A Tactical Retreat to The Rear

After not much action going on in Round 1, Sterling felt the need to press the pace in Round 2. That turned out to be to his detriment. Sterling went out and overextended on a punch and got flattened by a clean right hand. O’Malley needed to not make any mistakes against Sterling and he did nearly that at UFC 292.

Countless comparisons have been made with O’Malley’s finish of Sterling and that of Conor McGregor knocking out Jose Aldo in 2015. While they are very similar actions, context changes those two moments dramatically. I almost included a McGregor diagram in this issue to look at as well but felt that would be redundant and wouldn’t provide anything new. That said, the two shots are eerily similar.

With Aljamain Sterling wanting to press forward, he would need to time the cross step of O’Malley. This means that Sterling had to force some action and O’Malley could set a trap. Building off of the cross step and everything we saw earlier in the article, O’Malley’s trap couldn’t have been more picture-perfect.

(1) We start the sequence in a southpaw versus orthodox stance with O’Malley being the orthodox fighter. His rear leg would (2) throw a push kick to the midsection of Sterling to create a bit of distance. Often times off the push kick, O’Malley would bring the foot down into the opposite stance making the rear leg that was pushing the new lead leg. Sterling believes that this is what’s going to happen and (3) starts to come forward. O’Malley picks up on this and (4) brings that rear leg back into it’s starting position again. This works effectively because Sterling is advancing as if O’Malley is now in southpaw with him. He can either connect with a left or get into a clinch. When O’Malley steps back, Sterling is left with no option but to throw the left. The problem is that O’Malley also created distance as Sterling is throwing. (5) He steps back onto his base and lands a right hook over the top that drops Sterling. You know the rest.

From a different angle, we can get a better look at how the knockdown worked out. (1) As Sterling stepped in, he grabbed the lead wrist of O’Malley. Getting wrist control to take the would be power hand off the cross step helps Sterling land or clinch up. As we know, (2) O’Malley just steps back into his original orthodox stance and Sterling is left missing with his cross. His overextension and failure to get back to a safe position of protection with his left (3) allows O’Malley to come over the top with a wide-open highway for his missile of a right to connect.

The win over Sterling showed that O’Malley is the best in the world. Sterling was a stylistic nightmare for him, but it wasn’t an unwinnable fight for O’Malley. He and his team identified the way to victory, the way to becoming a champion. Hours of tape study really helped O’Malley understand what was coming back his way. Now we have Merab Dvalishvili and Cory Sandhagen waiting in the wings but recovering from injuries. The Marlon Vera loss is one O’Malley wants back. The story sells itself. What are you guys doing in December?