If there’s one thing UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling is reliable for, it’s talking smack about everybody else in the division.
Sterling took to his YouTube channel after the main event at UFC Nashville over the weekend, which saw an elite bantamweight clash between Cory Sandhagen and Rob Font. Sterling went on to say that he was extremely disappointed in the showing from both fighters.
UFC Bantamweight Champ Aljamain Sterling Disappointed In Sandhagen vs Font Eliminator
“That main event, I gotta call it what it is. That was as duck as it gets. I really thought there was going to be a complete opposite turn of events.
I figured Rob Font was really gonna come out looking to insert himself. I know he was pressuring forward. I’m trying to be respectful and at the same time reasonable in my analysis with this. I just think Font has a lot of holes when it comes to grappling.
You can’t just go for a kimura hoping to get off your back with just that. You need a little more than that in your backpack. Your tools, so to speak.
I was honestly pretty disappointed with his lack of ability to be able to get back to his feet. I think he might have gotten up once maybe twice out of the five or six takedowns that he’s giving up. That’s tough, man.”
Sterling did concede that the fight took place on short notice. Sandhagen was meant to face Umar Nurmagomedov, who was forced out of the bout by injury.
Even though Cory Sandhagen won that night, Sterling feels like the three-fight winning streak is not enough to earn Sandhagen a shot at the 135-pound strap, especially given the outcome of the last time Sandhagen fought Sterling.
“Font, he wanted it. Sandhagen, he wanted it. The difference is nobody showed that they wanted the next title shot with a definitive win.
Respectfully, when I fought Sandhagen that was my No. 1 contender fight and I definitively shown that I was the next guy in line. Finished him in less than two minutes. Now people are saying the rematch is gonna be different.
Guys, there’s not much different that I can say will happen in the rematch other than it might go a little bit longer. I haven’t seen the growth from the top position and let me be fair, I know he hurt his tricep, possibly tore it.
He had positions where he could have capitalized and done a lot of cool things with the dominant positions that he had and he just kind of chose to stay on top and just coast his way to the finish [line].”
