{"id":624127,"date":"2026-04-23T21:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624127\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:21:14","slug":"aljamain-sterling-reveals-message-he-sent-to-youssef-zalal-ahead-of-ufc-vegas-116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624127\/","title":{"rendered":"Aljamain Sterling reveals message he sent to Youssef Zalal ahead of UFC Vegas 116"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aljamain Sterling sent Youssef Zalal a text message before their UFC Vegas 116 main event fight was announced.<\/p>\n

Sterling and Zalal are friends outside the Octagon, but knew a fight<\/a> between the two was destined to happen, especially with both being legit title contenders. So, once the fight offer came in, Sterling revealed he sent Zalal a text message and wished him the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sent him a text message, I was like, \u2018Yo, it\u2019s all love, I know you got dreams you\u2019re trying to accomplish and chase, as am I,\u201d Sterling said<\/a> at UFC Vegas 116 media day. \u201cI know I already reached that pinnacle. But I\u2019m not done yet. I\u2019m not complacent, and I\u2019m not content. I\u2019m greedy, man. I want it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Sterling and Zalal are friendly<\/a>, both expect a tough fight. Neither plans to back down, as both know the winner will be in the featherweight title picture.<\/p>\n

Aljamain Sterling previously trained with Youssef Zalal<\/p>\n

Part of the reason why they are expecting a tough fight is due to the fact that they have trained with one another briefly. Yet, Sterling is confident he will get his hand raised and prove he\u2019s still a title contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to get complacent. But when you\u2019re training with these young guys in the gym every day, and they\u2019re getting after you, it has to keep you on top of your game \u2013 it pushes you to want to do that,\u201d Sterling said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraining with a guy like Youssef before in the past, it\u2019s definitely given me that inside look of how he thinks and what motivates him to want to win this fight. I got my work cut out for me. But I think big brother is gonna prevail and show him it\u2019s just not his time yet. It\u2019s still \u2018Funkmaster\u2019 time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aljamain Sterling enters UFC Vegas 116 as the betting underdog. He\u2019s 25-5 as a pro and coming off a decision win over Brian Ortega after a decision loss to Movsar Evloev.<\/p>\n

Do you think Aljamain Sterling will beat Youssef Zalal at UFC Vegas 116? Sound off in the comment section, PENN Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aljamain Sterling sent Youssef Zalal a text message before their UFC Vegas 116 main event fight was announced.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-624127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624127","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=624127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}