Former UFC bantamweight champion and current featherweight standout Aljamain Sterling confirmed that he turned down a fight.
“Funk Master” has not stepped into the Octagon since a five-round, unanimous decision win over Youssef Zalal in April. At age 37, his career is in the latter stages, so he knows every fight that he takes has to have some strategy behind it.
Sterling is currently ranked No. 4 in the Meta UFC Rankings at 145 lbs. However, he claims that he was offered a fight against an opponent who was ranked outside the top 10 and turned it down.
Aljamain Sterling Turns Down Fight
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Sterling confirmed he turned down a non-top-10-ranked opponent, though he did not mention who it was by name.
“I was offered a fight that was outside of the Top 10, and I felt like it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. I am ranked fourth in the world right now. I am 37. I don’t know. Sometimes I don’t understand the rhyme or reason for certain things,” (via MMA Mania).
“I only got one more shot at this, and I wanna make sure it’s the best shot that I get. And if I’m gonna risk it, I wanna make sure I’m risking it for something that that makes sense, you know? I ask to be active, but also, activity comes with a cost. You wanna be active for the fights that make sense for you at the same time, too.
“For me to lose to someone not even in the Top 10, rolling the dice? Some people could say, ‘Oh, you can’t think like that.’ Dude, you gotta look at the positives and the negatives. If I were to win, what does that get me? Probably nowhere. I’m in the same exact position. I’m just fighting for a paycheck. But if I were to lose, it puts me down a heck of a lot more spots than I probably should be. So it’s such a hard decision, and I think this is the first fight I ever turned down in my UFC career.”
Sterling Wanted to Fight Arnold Allen
According to Sterling, he wanted to fight No. 5-ranked Arnold Allen, but the UFC decided to book Allen against No. 13-ranked Aaron Pico for UFC 333 instead.
“I would have liked to have been offered the fight with Arnold Allen,” Sterling said.
Though he did not name who the UFC wanted him to fight, it is possible that Pico was the man that the UFC wanted to match up Sterling against, as he fits the mold of the non-top-10 ranked opponent. Plus, the UFC typically does these kinds of matchups where they pit former stars against up-and-coming fighters, so a Sterling vs. Pico fight would have been right in the UFC’s wheelhouse.
We’ll see what the UFC does with Sterling, but right now it feels like he’s being benched for turning down a fight against someone, and now he will have to wait for another opponent to become available.
Aljamain Sterling Says He Turned Down UFC Fight