I’d ‘probably have to move up’ – Sterling teases possible jump to 145

Aljamain Sterling waits backstage, for the start of his bout with Petr Yan at UFC 273, alongside Merab Dvalishvili. | Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

More wins could mean more problems for two of Team Serra Longo’s premier…


Aljamain Sterling waits backstage, for the start of his bout with Petr Yan at UFC 273, alongside Merab Dvalishvili.
Aljamain Sterling waits backstage, for the start of his bout with Petr Yan at UFC 273, alongside Merab Dvalishvili. | Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

More wins could mean more problems for two of Team Serra Longo’s premiere talents.

Nothing breeds confidence like success, but winning can also come with its own problems—especially in combat sports, where the higher a fighter climbs the fewer and fewer fights it makes sense for them to take. That’s a problem current bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling may find himself facing, as he recently got fans talking about potential title contenders with a somewhat cryptic post on social media.

That Tweet kicked off a some speculation over just who among the bantamweight elite might be in position to vie for the title, with discussion largely swirling around potential fights with TJ Dillashaw and Jose Aldo. When longtime Team Serra Longo teammate and training partner Merab Dvalishvili’s name got brought up in the mix, however, Sterling let slip a potential plan for the future—provided, of course, that both men keep winning their fights.

No word yet on exactly when Sterling plans to return to competition. The ‘Funkmaster’ reiterated his desire to sit down with Dana White and discuss the current contender’s picture before signing a deal for his next title defense. Recently the 32-year-old suggested that he’d be interested in returning in September, possibly as a co-main event for the teased Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic PPV headliner, provided that bout doesn’t happen over the summer as originally intended.