Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling wants the chance for revenge. He was dethroned by “Suga” Sean O’Malley, whose surging popularity saw him fast-tracked to the title, which he earned with a devastating second-round knockout win.
Sterling recently took to his YouTube channel to declare that he deserves an immediate chance to recapture the title… if similar treatment is afforded to another recently deposed UFC champ, Israel Adesanya.
UFC Bantamweight Aljamain Sterling DEMANDS Immediate Suga Sean Rematch
Sterling’s ire seemed to stem from UFC president Dana White hinting that Adesanya might get a second chance at Strickland despite being completely dominated at UFC 293.
“How did you give him another title shot, and then you tell me I don’t deserve it? That’s all I’m saying. I’m not knocking Izzy.
Izzy, if they give you the title shot, brother, take that s*** and run. But what I’m saying it, how do you get it and I don’t? If the fans, Dana, whoever, if they can justify that to me, I’ll be like, ‘Alright, I can see your point.’ But I don’t see the point.”
Sterling continued, making the case for his own title reign. “What are we talking about?
You’re saying his reign was better than mine based on what? I’m giving you guys all these fights and how they played out, which one of these are the ones that stand out?
[Paulo] Costa fight was crazy, that was a really good finish, and then the [Alex] Pereira fight, only because he lost and then he comes back in the second fight, and that was a great fight because of the anticipation.”
Sterling claimed that the “entire deck” was stacked against him going into the O’Malley fight. “I literally had the entire deck stacked against me coming into that fight.
I put my balls on the table and said, ‘I’m going to do this one more time, roll the dice, even though I know it’s not the best time for me to get back out there.’
I was able to make a mental shift to be like, ‘This is your job, this is the biggest moment of my career, let me try to capitalize on it,’ because at the end of the day, this is what fighters do.
We risk it for the biscuit, and I came up short.” Perhaps aware of his reputation among some fans for complaining, Sterling wanted to clarify the point.
“I don’t want the fans to get this misconstrued. I don’t want the UFC brass to get this misconstrued. It’s a business.
It’s the entertainment business. It’s not the merit business of No. 1 is supposed to fight No. 2. If it did, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, but that’s not the case.
This is all about the numbers. Izzy has done what he’s done in the past. He’s a huge figure. Look at his social media following versus Sean [O’Malley]. I just wish there was a little bit more consistency so we knew.”
