Aljamain Sterling spoke his truth and ended up getting what he wanted—but with the benefit of hindsight, he’s a bit torn about it.
Sterling returns to the octagon this Saturday as he faces Youssef Zalal in a pivotal featherweight headliner at UFC Vegas 116.
Following his dominant win over Benson Henderson at RAF 6 in February, the former UFC bantamweight champion spoke with MMA Fighting backstage, and when asked if anything was in the works for him after the UFC officially announced the UFC 327 matchup
between Patricio Pitbull and Aaron Pico, Sterling unleashed the most passionate promo of his career in which he expressed his frustrations with the UFC and the featherweight division.
Ahead of his massive fight this weekend, Sterling reflected on that moment.
“I mean, I was just speaking from the heart, man,” Sterling told MMA Fighting. “I was fired up, just finished a fun match and a dominant one, and I’m just happy to compete because I guess everyone really loved the speech. I guess I should do that more often. But, I don’t know.
“Sometimes, I know it could come off the wrong way, and I try not to do that as much because now I understand. Well before I was like, OK, I just, I would just say shit. I don’t know, whatever, man. I’m just trying to do the right thing by myself and of course by the company, so it’s hard to do both sometimes. It is hard to kind of toe that line of being honest with people and, at the same time, being honest with myself and also being a good company guy.”
Not long after, Sterling got his wish and now faces Zalal at Meta APEX in a five-round clash. In his most recent fight, “Funk Master” dominated two-time title challenger Brian Ortega in the co-main event of UFC Shanghai this past August.
“We were originally supposed to be on the Newark card, and then I was told that they’re going to be moving us to the main event in the Apex, which I said was OK too,” Sterling said.
“I kind of preferred the three rounds. My thought process is just more fighting for, I don’t want to say for less, but it’s just more work. It’s just more work—more sparring, more cardio, more intense training sessions. I prefer to do that really for title shot opportunities and stuff like that, but it is what it is. It’s still a fight. It’s a good fight, and it’s a tough competitor against a guy who’s surging right now. A hot prospect [who has] found his groove after he got cut and came back, and now he’s on fire, man”.
Since being released from the UFC after going 3-3-1 in his first stint with the company, Zalal has done nothing but win as he enters his first-ever UFC main event on an eight-fight win streak. Zalal is 5-0 since his return, and gets top billing following an impressive 98-second submission win against Josh Emmett at UFC 320 this past October.
With the featherweight division in an interesting spot, and with current champ Alexander Volkanovski without an opponent for his next title defense, Sterling believes he could blow the door wide open if he’s able to get a big win over a surging contender.
“So if I take this guy out, it’ll be like the equivalent of—for recent recency bias—like a Dustin Poirier-[Benoit Saint Denis] or a Diego Lopes vs. Jean Silva,” Sterling explained. “So that’s kind of the way I’m approaching this, and if I can get the job done in a good fashion, I think the door is wide open for me to jump in there for a potential title shot or at least be one of the next guys in line.”
