The bantamweight champion responded to Vera after ‘Chito’ suggested excessive weight cutting was the same as cheating.
Aljamain Sterling has responded to Marlon “Chito” Vera’s accusations that he’s not a real bantamweight and basically cheating to gain a size advantage.
“Cutting that much weight is cheating to me,” Vera said on a recent episode of the Believe You Me podcast. “You’re kind of a pu—y if you cut that much weight, because you want to be bigger and stronger. Because he really doesn’t hurt nobody, but he makes you carry his weight, takes you down.”
“I’m 155 pounds in or out of camp. I feel like that’s a natural 135-pounder, and I’m still thinking I cut a s—tload of weight, because 20 pounds is a lot. That motherf—ker weighs like 170, 180 pounds when he’s eating f—king God knows what. Yeah, you can make the weight but that’s why he’s been KOed unconscious, because of the amount of weight he cuts. If you touch him, he might go down.”
In a new video posted to his YouTube account, Sterling sidestepped the specifics of how much he weighed. But he did argue that his chin has held up just fine in most of his fights.
“I’ve literally ran face-first into a knee against Marlon Moraes and I got faceplanted,” Sterling said. “Chito, Dom, Frankie, Yanez, Merab, Umar, Gardbrant, the whole bantamweight division can go do the same exact thing, and get hit on the same exact spot from the force of a kick like that, and I guarantee you, you are sleeping. What are we even talking about? How are you even comparing that to that’s why he’s been KO’d unconscious?”
“That was a very particular event, a sequence of events, that led to the KO’d unconscious. So we gotta stop right there, it’s not the same argument. It’s not like we’re in an exchange and I get hit and I’m going down. You can see that in the Yan fight, you can see that in the Munoz fight.”
Mainly, Aljamain said he wanted Vera to stop swinging back and forth between respectful and disrespectful.
“Wow, it’s crazy how you can be this guy, and then you try to be this guy,” Sterling said. “So, I’m like, which one is it? Is Chito the tough, badass gangster that almost tries to dress like he’s a west coast gangster, versus the nice guy who’s super polite? Yeah, we’re in the same weight class, but I’m like, which one are you? You’re trying to be two different people.”
“I don’t really give a s— which one you want to be towards me, I just don’t know what I’m supposed to … like if I see you in person and you walk past me and you put your hand out and you give me this death stare at the same time you stick your hand out. What, do you want to feel my soul, are you searching for something? I get it bro, you fight people for a living. That’s cool and badass, you’re like the only person I know that does that.”
“I don’t know which side of the fence you’re on here, buddy,” he finished. “You gotta pick one. We don’t gotta be best friends, you don’t gotta be a dick. And we can be best friends, or you can be a dick. Which one do you want? I don’t get it. You’re confusing me.”
Had to ask my bro @chitoveraUFC about that weight cut stuff pic.twitter.com/bLFdKqhIy5
— Jalin Turner (@JalinTurner) December 31, 2022
As for Vera, he’s getting some blowback from inside his own gym regarding those ‘weight cutting is cheating’ comments. In a video posted to Twitter, Jalin Turner walked up on Vera to jokingly ask “What you talking s— about people cutting weight for?”
“I was talking about bantamweights,” Vera replied, laughing. “Not lightweights. Not huge lightweights. I’m okay with the huge lightweights. But f— you, dude!”
For reference, Jalin Turner weighed 181.6 pounds on fight day for his UFC 272 fight against Jamie Mullarkey. He won that bout via second round TKO.