Aljamain Sterling is eager to prove doubters wrong in a potential move to featherweight.
Sterling (23-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) teased a move up to 145 pounds after losing his bantamweight title to Sean O’Malley by knockout at UFC 292 in August. He expressed interest in facing former champion Max Holloway next, but Daniel Cormier warned him against it.
Cormier thinks Sterling had a hard time with O’Malley’s length and would have even more trouble against Holloway (25-7 MMA, 21-7 UFC). No stranger to being undermined, Sterling is motivated to show that he can hang with Holloway.
“He (Cormier) was saying that he likes me, but he doesn’t think I should fight Max Holloway,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “That kind of makes me just want to go up right out of the gate and just call him out and say, ‘I want to show you guy’s what’s up.’ I know he said that if I struggled with O’Malley’s height and size – I’m like, but did I actually struggle? I made one mistake compared to the first round where mostly I was pretty disciplined.”
Sterling admits he bit on some of O’Malley’s fakes and lauded him for his movement. But without having to deplete himself to make 135 pounds, Sterling vows he’d be a different fighter at featherweight.
“To say I would struggle, that kind of gets me going,” Sterling said. “That kind of gets me wanting to be like, ‘OK, I’ll show you guys what’s up.’ I don’t think people really understand big-body Aljo, what he can do compared to scrawny but shredded Aljo. It’s just different man power. … Max is the man, bro. Max is the f*cking man. I go out and I beat the man, bro, come on. And I think it erases my mistake – not completely, but it erases my mistake.”
