YouTube channel<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s being allowed to get a rematch with Volkanovski, a guy who just beat him in his last fight. Volk hasn\u2019t fought since then. \u2026<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m not mad at it for Diego Lopes. Dude, if you get an opportunity to fight for gold again, in a matchup where if you can land that big punch, which he was able to clip Volk in the first fight, but for the most part, it was pretty much a masterclass on one side. So that\u2019s my point: if it was a close fight, I could get it. But you just lost. You did beat a guy who I don\u2019t think was ranked Top 10. That\u2019s no knock on Jean. Everybody knows who Jean Silva is. That guy is a dog [barking noises].<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big win. I get that. But he just fought the champ, lost to the champ in what was pretty one-sided, he gets a big win over a very, very popular dude who might have catapulted and leapfrogged everybody had he beaten Diego Lopes, the guy who just fought for the title. I\u2019m just trying to make it make sense in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be fair, Sterling isn\u2019t the only one confused. Volkanovski and his team have admitted they didn\u2019t see this rematch coming, and had previously lobbied to fight several of the other contenders, though that\u2019s obviously not what the UFC opted for. And for Sterling, he thinks the reasoning is obvious.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get what they\u2019re trying to do,\u201d Sterling said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to get us a champion that can represent Mexico, and pretty much Brazil, too. It\u2019s just, what is the criteria? That is all I want to know. I just want something that, when we come into this sport \u2014 I\u2019m now 36. I came into this sport when I was 24, and merit used to mean something for the most part. The UFC used to be the organization [where] the best fight the best.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s, \u2018Are you the most popular guy? Because if you\u2019re the most popular guy and you can fight just a little bit, we\u2019ll throw you in there. As long as you can fight a little bit and beat some of the best guys, or beat some favorable matchups that people might know, but it\u2019s enough for you to get a highlight win, we\u2019ll put you in that spot. And hopefully, if you\u2019re lucky, we\u2019ll cash out.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI get the business model of it, but as the athlete \u2026 it doesn\u2019t make any sense. Because we come in, we are told the best guys will fight the best guys. \u2018You eat what you kill.\u2019 Well, how can you kill something if you\u2019re not given the opportunity? How can you kill something if every time the opportunity is there, it\u2019s given to someone else?\u201d<\/p>\n
Plenty of fans agree with Sterling. There\u2019s been considerable backlash from the MMA community about this rematch. And for those who don\u2019t, Sterling has a simple message, employing some of UFC CEO Dana White\u2019s oft-used phrases.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the fans are siding with the UFC on this, you\u2019re basically siding with the option that merit doesn\u2019t mean anything. That\u2019s like saying the NBA teams, the Golden State Warriors, because they have Steph Curry and all these other big names, that they should always go to the finals and get a chance to play for gold, because they\u2019re the team favorites. Doesn\u2019t matter if they lost. Bro, make it make sense, is all I\u2019m trying to ask. So we know what we at least need to do. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018The best fight the best\u2019 \u2014 I\u2019m using the words from the boss. \u2018We make the fights the fans want to see. This is not boxing.\u2019 Guys, this shit is turning into f*cking boxing. This shit is turning into f*ing boxing, and you\u2019re seeing it right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s safe to say that some fighters are not happy with the recent trend of title fights in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-315529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}