The UFC bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling, had to endure his share of trash talk before he was finally able to defend his title against Petr Yan. After a long time, surgery, and “a lot of sh*t”, Sterling’s head coach, Eric Nicksick, believes the “Funk Master” has finally won over the fans, discussing the experience in an interview with MMAFighting.
“We took a lot of s***, obviously. It is what it is, but it was funny, Aljamain and I were laughing a couple of days ago and said, ‘Hey, man, every time we post a picture we don’t have 9,000 comments from people posting clown emojis and talking s*** anymore.’ It’s a little different. I think he’s gained that respect back from the overall fan base.
Sterling’s Coach Recalls Taking “A Lot of Sh*t”
I think the learning from that time really helped everybody involved. We had the ability to go fight Petr Yan and go back to the drawing board, redo it again and figure these things out. But the maturity and the growth, it helped all of us to be quite fair.”
Next week, Sterling will defend his title once more against another former champion. This time it’s T.J. Dillashaw, who was stripped of the bantamweight strap following a positive drug test. Dillashaw had to endure a two-year suspension, returning to competition against Cory Sandhagen last year at UFC Vegas 32.
Although Dillashaw won that fight via decision, many, including Sandhagen, felt that he should have lost. Accordingly, there’s a camp that feels that T.J. Dillashaw does not deserve this run at the title. Eric Nicksick is not among them.
“I loved what I saw from T.J. in that fight. Even with the knee injury, him seeing a little adversity, I loved seeing the switch up in the game plan to attack the legs. You saw a lot of leg kicks out of him to limit the ability of Cory Sandhagen.
I think that fight could’ve gone either way. Aljo and I watched it again, and it was tough. I think you can judge it either side, but I think what you saw was the grittiness of T.J. Dillashaw in injuring his knee, and being able to find ways to come through. I think, for me, with the way that he approached that fight, I think you saw his championship pedigree — even though he had been out for two years before that last fight.”
Has Aljamain Sterling earned the fans’ respect? Let us know in the comments.
