UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling has spoken out against the disrespect he believes fans of Islam Makhachev have shown to Charles Oliveira.
This coming weekend features a massive PPV card in the form of UFC 280. The main event features a vacant lightweight title fight between Oliveira and Makhahcev. The co-main will see Aljamain Sterling attempt to defend his 135lb title against former title holder TJ Dillashaw.
Both fights promise to be exciting affairs, but it is fair to see that the main event has the biggest buzz around it, out of all the matchups on the entire card. Both Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira have extremely loyal fanbases, who are entirely confident that their fighter will leave with their hand raised.
However, Aljamain Sterling recently stated that he believes that the fans of Makhachev are going to far in the support of the elite Dagestani. In a recent interview with LowKickMMA, the ‘Funk Master’ had the following to say on the matter:
“I think it’s a great fight. I’m actually super excited to watch it. I don’t know which way that fight is gonna go. There’s a lot of Islam Makhachev nut-huggers out there that won’t give Oliveira any credit. They just keep thinking that he’s gonna get ran through. I think that’s super disrespectful for everything Oliveira has done. It’s one thing if Islam is thinking like that, he’s the one that’s getting in there, but for people to say that and completely write him off – it’s like, how many times can you write off Oliveira.”