Aljamain Sterling is fired up about his position in the featherweight pecking order.
A former UFC bantamweight champion with three title defenses to his name, Sterling moved up to 145 pounds after losing his title to Sean O’Malley in 2023. Since then, “The Funk Master” has gone 2-1 in the weight class, most recently defeating Brian Ortega at UFC Shanghai in August.
But despite his accomplishments, Sterling does not appear to be in the mix for a crack at featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. Instead, the UFC gave Diego Lopes a second crack at the 145 title, just 10 months after losing to Volkanovski in his first title shot, which left Sterling feeling slighted.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time, been with the company since 2014. I’ve been calling my shot,” Sterling told MMA Fighting after RAF 6 on Saturday night, where he beat Benson Henderson. “Defended my belt the most in the bantamweight division, tied with a couple other greats like Merab Dvalishvili, consecutive title defenses. Give me my f*cking shot. I deserve a shot at the title. OG vs. OG.
“I’m smarter than all these dumb motherf*ckers out there. Excuse my French, but Diego Lopes gets a f*cking rematch, and he goes out there and fights worse! After actually doing decent in the first fight! Hurt him! And he can’t figure out how to do a lateral step to cut off the f*cking cage! Like, what are we even talking about?
“Yeah, I don’t have knockout power. That’s never been my game. I win with this [points to his brain]. I’m smarter than a lot of these guys out there. Like I said, I’m an OG of the game. Give me my f*cking title shot. I’ll put on a good show for the fans. I’ve been working on my striking, as people saw in the Brian Ortega fight. Give me my f*cking shot. I’ve earned this. I’ve been around for a long time.”
Unfortunately for Sterling, it seems unlikely that a title shot is coming soon. I just a few weeks, undefeated Movsar Evloev, who has a win over Sterling, fights fellow undefeated fighter Lerone Murphy in the main event of UFC London, a fight that appears to be a clear-cut title eliminator. That means Sterling probably needs to fight again, and if that’s what it takes, he’s happy to do so, even if he feels like the promotion is working against him.
“I don’t know what else I’ve got to do,” Sterling said. “If you want to give me Yair Rodriguez, I’ll fight him. If you want to give me Jean Silva, I’ll fight him. If you want to give me Youssef Zalal, I’ll fight him. I’ve never turned down anybody. These guys have asked me for opponents that I want to fight, and then they give me somebody the complete opposite because they want to see me lose.
“That’s my perspective. It might be different for them, but my perspective is, you ask me who I want to fight, I give you a name, stylistic good matchup for myself, you give me somebody else, what does that tell me? Oh, maybe I’m not the guy for the spot, but I keep proving them wrong. Give me a f*cking title shot and I’m gonna prove them wrong again.”
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