Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight titleholder Aljamain Sterling is all smiles this week, posing with a belt he won by disqualification and standing arm-in-arm with a coach he left high and dry ahead of UFC 259.
“In this together no matter what!” the champ wrote on Twitter.
Sterling, 31, defeated former 135-pound titleholder Petr Yan when “No Mercy” threw an illegal knee at UFC 259. Shortly thereafter, longtime mentor Matt Serra told the combat sports community that “Funk Master” dumped him for a new coach.
“People have been giving Aljamain Sterling a lot of hate,” Serra told his Instagram followers. “One because of the knee, and two because they think me and him have some beef or something like that. It’s true, I’m stepping away from cornering for now, spending time with the family, but myself and the ‘Funk Master’ are always gonna be cool. I’m gonna help him defend this belt.”
Sterling is expected to run it back with Yan at some point in the very near future. Until then, we can expect more back-and-forth chatter from the rival bantamweights as they argue over the UFC 259 result in Las Vegas.