UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling isn’t going around slapping comedians, but he empathizes with Will Smith’s antics at the Oscars. Sterling told The MMA Hour that he understands why Smith would walk right up to Chris Rock and slap him in the face after making a joke about Smith’s wife, but he does not endorse violence outside the Octagon.
“I understand it was wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying what Will did was right. I want everyone to understand that. But the past two years for him, to have dealt with what he’s dealt with on social media, and then he has another person that — I don’t know their relationship, maybe he feels that was a friend and it was a low point and it was just enough was enough and he saw what it did to his wife.
Aljamain Sterling on Will Smith: “I get it. I don’t agree with it but I get it”
It gets to a point where we’re all human and we all have breaking points, and I think people forget that. You’re trying to tell this man where his limit and where his threshold is — that’s wrong. That, to me, is wrong. You can’t tell me I should feel this way at this time and this place, and I should be able to contain myself at this time and this place. You don’t know what I’m dealing with.
[…] I get it. I don’t agree with it, but I get it.” Sterling continued, comparing the situation to the altercation between Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington a few weeks back.
“It’s the same exact thing. You cross a certain line, you have to expect that not everyone is gonna be the same person that you can get away with that with. Some people might get somebody else to do it, some people are gonna say, ‘Nah, screw that, when I see you and I get an opportunity, just know I’m taking that opportunity.’
That’s how we grew up in the streets. You said some s*** and someone’s able to catch you slipping, bro, it’s a bad night for you. Probably the last night for you.
So Jorge did what you would think he shouldn’t be doing at this point in his life and his career, but listen, some people live by the code, die by the code. I can’t knock him for that. I’m not saying it’s right, I don’t agree with it, but again, I can’t tell him how to feel. I can’t tell this man what’s enough.”
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