{"id":863252,"date":"2026-08-21T13:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863252\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T13:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:56:12","slug":"aljamain-sterling-sidelined-after-turning-down-opponent-outside-top-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863252\/","title":{"rendered":"Aljamain Sterling sidelined after turning down opponent outside top ten"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former UFC Bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling, hasn\u2019t competed since he knocked back younger up-and-comer<\/a>, Youssef Zalal, in the main event of a UFC Apex card back in April. But, it may be a while yet before \u201cFunkmaster\u201d returns, because he just turned down a fight offer against someone who isn\u2019t even in the Featherweight Top 10<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sterling discussed the situation in a recent episode of his YouTube podcast, describing his frustration with being left off the upcoming UFC 333 card<\/a> in October headlined by divisional champion Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev. On the undercard: a fight between No. 5<\/a>-ranked Arnold Allen versus No.-13 seeded Aaron Pico.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have liked to have been offered the fight with Arnold Allen,\u201d Sterling said. \u201cI was offered a fight that was outside of the Top 10, and I felt like it didn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense to me. I am ranked fourth in the world right now. I am 37. I don\u2019t know. Sometimes I don\u2019t understand the rhyme or reason for certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sterling noted the wealth of great fights getting booked at the top of the featherweight division and questioned why he was haven\u2019t such a hard time getting a good opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only got one more shot at this, and I wanna make sure it\u2019s the best shot that I get,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if I\u2019m gonna risk it, I wanna make sure I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to lose to someone not even in the Top 10, rolling the dice?\u201d he continued. \u201cSome people could say, \u2018Oh, you can\u2019t think like that.\u2019 Dude, you gotta look at the positives and the negatives. If I were to win, what does that get me? Probably nowhere. I\u2019m in the same exact position. I\u2019m 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\u2019s such a hard decision, and I think this is the first fight I ever turned down in my UFC career.\u201d<\/p>\n

UFC doesn\u2019t really mess around<\/a> with fight offers. If Dana White & Co. come offer a fighter a match-up and he or she turns it down, UFC usually don\u2019t come back around with another option for four to six months.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Sterling is hoping that something will fall into place sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my days of just taking random fights are kinda past me at this point,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, if there\u2019s a good opportunity and it makes sense and there\u2019s, I don\u2019t wanna say a promise, but there\u2019s something on the back end.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t articulated to me that there would be an upside to rolling the dice,\u201d he continued. \u201cBecause if there is, then, okay, game on. But if there is no upside, then it\u2019s like, yo, dude, I\u2019m not just fighting for a f–king paycheck. I\u2019m fighting for legacy. I\u2019m fighting for history. I hope people could actually understand that, and it\u2019s not it\u2019s not lost on people. Like, \u2018Oh, fighters fight.\u2019 Dude, I\u2019m 37. F–king 37.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his championship run, Sterling gained a reputation from UFC\u2019s CEO as being difficult to work with<\/a>. Whether that\u2019s true or not, he now seems stuck in a position where the big opportunities aren\u2019t coming his way despite success a weight class up. In his last four fights since losing the bantamweight belt, he\u2019s only lost once, and it was a competitive fight to the next 145-pound challenger (Evloev).<\/p>\n

\u201cFunkmaster\u201d already accepted a fight down the rankings in his last outing against the tough. but relatively unknown, Zalal, who was ranked No. 9<\/a>. At a certain point, you have to wonder who\u2019s being difficult to work with: Sterling or UFC?<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/a>\"MMA<\/p>\n

When did you start watching UFC\/MMA?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Closes in 5 days \u2022 11 total votesView results<\/p>\n

Early UFC\/Pride eraSpike TV eraUFC 200-ishTKO eraOther (see comments)Rec 1CommentsThin Stroke Comment Icon BubbleReplyRead 1 repliesTo checkout UFC\u2019s latest Meta Rankings update click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UFC Bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling, hasn\u2019t competed since he knocked back younger up-and-comer, Youssef Zalal, in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-863252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}