The UFC bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling, believes that the UFC is struggling to find a serious threat to him in the 135-pound division. Sterling recently defended his title against former champ T.J. Dillashaw, demolishing Dillashaw inside two rounds. In a recent interview with The MMA Hour, Sterling pondered if the UFC were “looking for a last hope” to beat him.
“I like Dana on a personal level, outside of the cameras and everything, I like Dana. But some of the things he actually says are beyond me sometimes.
Sterling Believes UFC “looking for a last hope” Of Someone To Beat Him
You go on record, you say whoever wins [the O’Malley-Yan] fight is clearly getting the No. 1 shot because it makes sense. After the fight, everything completely changes and then you throw Henry ‘Cedoodoo’ in the mix and I’m just completely confused because this guy hasn’t fought in over two years.
You don’t want to give him a [featherweight] title shot to go be triple champ, which I’m not opposed to because I think if anyone deserves it based on merit, it’s him. I’m not a hater by any means. But then the guy comes back after two years, fought at 125, fought twice maybe at ‘35, and he’s supposed to come back and get an immediate title shot after doing what?
So now it’s like I almost feel—and I could be completely wrong—I almost feel like they’re looking for a last hope of someone who can take out Aljamain Sterling.”
Sterling continued, citing the brewing tension with another former champ in Henry “Triple C? Cejudo. Cejudo famously earned gold in both the uFC flyweight and bantamweight divisions as well as Olympic gold. That “narrative”, says Sterling, is what the UFC now wants to push.
“They’re hoping that they can make this narrative of the Olympic wrestling now. D-1 wasn’t good enough, now the Olympic wrestling might be good enough to take out the D-3 wrestler.
But I can tell you one thing for certain, this ass-whooping is an equal opportunity employer. All races, all colours can get it. It really doesn’t matter.
If it’s Henry, if it’s ‘Chito’ [Marlon Vera] from Ecuador, if it’s O’Malley with the colorful hair, Mr. Sugar T***, if it’s a rematch with Yan because we know the UFC likes to give title shots to people coming off of losses, if they want to give it to [Cory] Sandhagen, there’s plenty of options.”
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