Whenever Aljamain Sterling competes, he appears to to face two opponents: the fighter opposite him, and his critics. The Long Island native and UFC bantamweight champion had heard it all, especially after becoming champion. It doesn't bother him.
Sterling heads to New Jersey to defend his title against Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 on May 6. The first fight since 2020 for Cejudo, there are a lot of questions surrounding both men. Critics are already out in full force for Sterling. The 33-year-old is ready to quiet the nose and make sure Cejudo, the former UFC bantamweight and flyweight champion, has no excuses on fight night.
"They could shut up now if they want to," Sterling told The Sporting News' Andreas Hale about critics. "It's not my job to control how my opponents come to the cage. I do my job: compete, win, and move on to the next one. This is going to be no different. Hopefully, Henry Cejudo doesn't stub his toe coming into the octagon, and people start talking about that."
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UFC 288 will air on ESPN+ PPV in the U.S. This will be Sterling's first time headlining an event as champion.
"Funk Master" turned pro in 2011. A CFFC bantamweight champion, the two-time NCAA Division III All-American wrestler joined the UFC in 2014 and is 14-3 with the promotion. On an eight-fight win streak since 2018, Sterling beat Petr Yan at UFC 259 via DQ to win the UFC bantamweight title. Yan used an illegal knee, and detractors on social media came after Sterling, saying he acted injured to win the title.
A social media professional, Sterling has 587K followers on Instagram and 190.1K on Twitter. The host of The Weekly Scraps podcast, he is not afraid to speak his mind. Sterling interacts with the good and bad of social media. He embraces all forms of content.
"Social media for me is what it is: social media," Sterling said. "It's to engage, jump into a conversation. I don't act like I'm better than the everyday person who gets on the phone to have some banter with somebody else. I think some people get it kind of twisted, where they look at that and see, 'Oh, I'm in his head'. I use the comments as fuel, the same way I use the interviews from my opponents as fuel. If I'm going to turn that off, why not just turn myself off from literally everything and not listen to my opponents, the comments, or the media people who are saying stuff? That's all this is for me. If you let it beat you up or get inside your head, it's a completely different conversation. Maybe that's a conversation you need to seriously have.
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"For me, I just have fun with it. It doesn't bother me. Thirteen months of people trash-talking me and me going back and forth with them shows I have a different mentality when it comes to the mental. That's how I look at it. Some might look at it like, 'Oh, you're too involved'. I'm like, listen, just because this controls your life, don't think it does the same for me. I say what I say, and then I'm out. I got things to do. I guess I handle it and compartmentalize better than most people. I like to have fun, engaging with the positive, sometimes with the negative."
He faced the Russian in a rematch at UFC 273, edging him via a close split decision scoring. Sterling last fought in October, taking out T.J. Dillashaw via TKO. Dillashaw was injured, as his shoulder got dislocated early on. It was revealed that Dillashaw dislocated it about 20 times in camp.
Sterling is tied with Dillashaw for the most wins (13) in the UFC's bantamweight division, with a chance to break the record against Cejudo. Even with that accolade, there will still be trolls online refusing to give him his due. Per Bet MGM, Cejudo is the -115 favorite, while Sterling is the -105 underdog. It makes one wonder if Sterling is the most disrespected UFC champion today.
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"Honestly, I really don't know," Sterling said. "I couldn't give you an honest answer. I think the excuses only started after the first Yan fight. That was also my first title fight. That showing, if I'm being honest, wasn't an accurate depiction of everything I'd done leading up to that title shot. If you've never seen Aljamain Sterling fight, and that was your first time watching because you're a casual, which is OK... I get why those casual fans are like that because it's the first and only ever appearance you've seen of me. They think Yan must be this monster if the hype said, 'Sterling is this, this, and this, and this guy kind of just did whatever he wanted, then rematch! No way he loses to this guy'. You got to the rematch, and it's close, but not really. It's really not close.
"You almost have to figure a way to cope with your warped perception of reality because you're not a die-hard fan. You don't understand what I've done or have watched my previous fights to understand my entire game. Maybe I'm just too analytical with it. It just makes it easier to make things sit. I'm going to give you the option to go back and watch my previous fights leading up to it (the first Yan fight) and see how I even got there. I guarantee you that tune will change."
On a five-fight win streak, Cejudo has been training with fighters since hanging up his gloves. Will we see a competitive fight? Or can Sterling silence his critics and "Triple C" once and for all?
