LAS VEGAS – By his own admission, 2023 has been a “long, crazy year” for Aljamain Sterling. A big reason for that is how his UFC bantamweight championship reign played out and ultimately ended.
Sterling first defended his title May 6 at UFC 288 by winning a split decision against Henry Cejudo. Afterward, he expressed his desire to take just a little time off – one month to decompress – before jumping back into training camp for a fight with Sean O’Malley. The UFC, however, was intent on booking them to headline UFC 292 roughly three months later on Aug. 19.
That put a lot of pressure on Sterling and even though the date was sooner than he would’ve liked, he accepted. And then he lost his title to O’Malley by second-round TKO in Boston.
“It is what it is,” Sterling told MMA Junkie recently on the World MMA Awards red carpet. “I got rushed back a little bit. But I took the fight, no excuses. The better man won that night.”
Given how the overall situation played out, Sterling called for a rematch and expected he would get it. After all, his three consecutive title defenses prior to the loss set a new bantamweight record. If not an immediate rematch for himself, Sterling hoped the next title shot would go to his good friend and teammate, Merab Dvalishvili, who is on a nine-fight winning streak.
Neither of those things happened as Sterling will make his featherweight debut against Calvin Kattar in April at UFC 300, while Dvalishvili has a fight lined up with Cejudo in February at UFC 298.
Instead, the UFC booked O’Malley’s first title defense against Marlon Vera in March at UFC 299. The issue with that matchmaking is that Vera (No. 6) is lower than Sterling (No. 1) and Dvalishvili (No. 2) in the official UFC bantamweight rankings, with a loss in March to Cory Sandhagen, who’s also ahead of him at No. 4, on his recent resume. But the fight between O’Malley and Vera sells itself given Vera is responsible for O’Malley’s only career defeat in August 2020, and the champ wants his revenge.
That doesn’t exactly sit well with Sterling.
“We know how the UFC works,” Sterling said. “It’s a little bit more on popularity sometimes and a business standpoint. And I get that. I would eventually like for us to get to the merit side of things. That’s what I’m all about.”
One contributing factor to the UFC often veering from a meritocracy in place of entertainment could be that not enough fighters speak out the way Sterling does. He wishes that would change.
“A hundred percent, but at the end of the day, it’s the UFC’s show,” Sterling said. “They run the business. They see the dollar signs before anything else, so I get that aspect of it. They’ve got to feed themselves, they’ve got to feed us, and they’ve got to feed their shareholders now. I get all that. I do wish some of these fighters would step up and bang the drum a little bit. Because that’s what I got into the sport for: I want to face the best. There’s only three guys I’ve ever fought that were not ranked; everybody else I’ve fought had been ranked. Some of these other guys are building up their resumes on unranked fighters, guys who are no longer here, and I think you could look down the list of the guys I’ve faced, the guys Merab faced, and it’s nothing but a killer’s row.
“I like that side of it. I don’t like easy fights. I think that’s one of the things I think about anyone else who kind of goes through that fire. I think it says a lot more about you as a person.”
As the UFC landscape currently is constructed, fighters who hope merit reigns supreme don’t have much leverage in deciding their career paths as the promotion has shown a willingness to move on to the next contender when there’s pushback. Without unionization or collective bargaining, there’s likely no way for fighters to collaboratively stand up for themselves. Instead, they rely on their managers fighting for them at the negotiating table.
Given only a few managers represent a large quantity of fighters on the UFC roster, that could be one way for fighters to band together in certain situations and perhaps create real change. Sterling isn’t optimistic.
“That’s a tough one, because I don’t think those managers are gonna do that,” Sterling said. “I don’t want to say too much to bite my nose to spite my face kind of a thing. There’s a lot I could say about managers, and I think they’re looking out for their best interests more than they’re looking out for their fighters. I think that’s the most political answer I can give. I don’t think there’s ever gonna be a time where they’re gonna be on the fighters’ side. It’s more about their pockets, how many athletes they can get, and how many different ways they can get paid.”
Ultimately, Sterling questions how much negotiating goes on between managers and UFC brass, and he wishes more fighters would wake up to a situation he believes is unfair to them.
“Behind the scenes, I’ve tried talking some sense into these guys,” Sterling said. “I’m not trying to piss anybody off, like I said, but there are a lot of fighters that do not need to have management, because those managers are not doing anything for those guys to elevate their careers, respectfully. Some of these guys do good work, but some of these guys don’t. If it’s only answer the phone, ‘Hey, this is the opponent.’ What do I need you for? Why am I actually paying you a chunk of my money when that money could be used for my coaches, extra hotel rooms, extra flights, car service, whatever you need to actually feel like a professional athlete, or recovery – things like that. Instead we’re paying it to a guy who’s answering the phone and is telling me, ‘This is your opponent.’ My little sister can do that. …
“If you’re gonna be a manager, all I’m saying is: Managers, manage the career, not your pockets.”
