Aljamain Sterling, after running his dominating title reign in the UFC bantamweight division, is now getting ready to make his comeback in the UFC cage. After losing the title at UFC 292 at the hands of Sean O’Malley, Aljo is recovering from the knockout punch loss.
Since winning the second bout against Petr Yan to defend the title, Sterling secured notable victories against former UFC bantamweight champions. Now the loss at UFC 292 is haunting Sterling as he failed once again to secure the victory in a grappling bout, another segment of fighting.
Aljamain Sterling vents after his loss to Dantzler
Recently, Sterling opened up about how upsetting the loss was against Sean O’Malley. Aljamain Sterling went into that state where he actually damaged that part of the body that gives the athlete the actual power in a sport. The smoking and drinks had a lot of effect on Aljo’s lungs, which led to another loss in his sports career.
Recently, the 34-year-old fought against Kevin Dantzler in a grappling match bout on December 30th. Before this in September, the former UFC bantamweight champion had hope of getting back on the winning track when he defeated Mike Grundy at Polaris 25.
But against Kevin Dantzler, Sterling’s bad phase had a real side effect as he lost the fight. The 34-year-old-year-old was unaware of the rules of grappling matches and instead questioned the judges and authorities about how they could give a score to someone who had his back on the mat.
Aljamain Sterling’s statement after facing the loss was firstly stating that he was unaware of the rules. “I didn’t even know how they scored that! Another man can’t drag his a** cheeks from the mat, and that’s a win, doing absolutely nothing.”
Then he compared it to the actual street. Nothing would work against him if Kevin were his opponent. He also asked why they made a sport that doesn’t match up in real life. “Yeah, the sport is Jiu-jitsu, guys. But I guarantee you, if that was a street fight, my man wouldn’t do that sh*t. So why are we turning the sport into some type of weird spectacle where you can win a match off of your back, doing absolutely nothing?”
Now the tables are turning for the former bantamweight champion as questions are being raised about his MMA career after he faced one more loss in four months.
Sterling’s plans after finishing up with MMA
Aljamain Sterling will be making his featherweight debut in UFC Octagon after an 8-month time gap at UFC 300 against Calvin Kattar.
Now, after two bouts in grappling matches, it has given him enough idea of how he can tackle the wrestling department of any fighter in the UFC. But the loss he suffered in his grappling match started to put a question mark on his MMA career.
“This has always been a passion of mine. I’m still doing full-on MMA training. I pride myself on being ‘The Backpack of Jitsu’, and I want to see how good I am in the grappling department.”
“Who knows, when I’m done in MMA, maybe I’ll go full-time in BJJ competitions,” Aljamain Sterling voiced about his future in combat sports.
Will Aljamain Sterling regain the throne that he defended four times, or will he conquer the UFC featherweight championship belt this time?
