UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling doesn't believe Sean O'Malley deserves to fight for the title.

Sterling defends his 135-pound strap against O'Malley in the UFC 292 headliner taking place Aug. 19 at the TD Garden in Boston.

It will be a first-ever title shot for O'Malley who, while on a five-fight winning streak and being 8-1 with one no contest in the UFC overall, has only defeated one top-five opponent in Petr Yan with many believing he didn't deserve to win on the night.

Yan aside, O'Malley's wins in the UFC have been far from impressive for Sterling given the level of his opposition — many of whom are not even in the UFC anymore.

“Dana White’s Contender Series, (O’Malley) gets a beautiful knockout, gets hyped up … has some OK fights, then he starts knocking out a couple of guys no longer in the UFC,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel (via MMA Junkie). “Terrion Ware, no longer in the UFC. Andre Soukhamthath, no longer in the UFC. Raulian Paiva, I don’t think he’s in the UFC. Thomas Almeida, he’s no longer in the UFC.

“Who else did he knock out? Kris Moutinho TKO, even though they probably should have let the fight keep going. … You get this guy who’s kind of come in, has had these tailor-made fights that were handpicked for him to look like a superstar, and in all fairness, I’m not even mad at that.”

More than anything, Sterling seems to be particularly aggrieved at the fact that it took him 14 fights in the UFC to earn a shot at bantamweight gold while O'Malley has had a far easier ride with fewer fights.

“You had this fight (against Yan) and it’s like, dude, we are not the same,” Sterling added. “We are just not the same. I’ve cut my teeth in this sport and in this division. What am I, 15-3 now? What are we even talking about? I got the resume. So I don’t think Sean deserved the spot.”

Of course, despite saying all this, Sterling earmarked O'Malley as his next opponent even before he defeated Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 and with good reason — O'Malley is a massive name and would be the biggest fight remaining at bantamweight for Sterling should he move up to featherweight next.