Aljamain Sterling is the UFC bantamweight champion.
Don’t like it?
“Screw you guys, go fuck yourself.”
That was the message from Sterling, who told The MMA Hour he’s fed up with all the shit fans have been giving him on social media after photos surfaced of “Funk Master” brandishing his 135-pound strap.
“To see the picture and think I was parading around with the belt, which is not what I was doing,” Sterling explained. “I only started doing that when people started giving me shit for my friends and family telling me to take a picture them and because they posted it, I never posted it, I became the bad guy.”
Sterling was awarded the bantamweight title after Petr Yan landed an illegal knee at UFC 259 back in March. “No Mercy” promptly owned up to the mistake — only to later shift gears and trash “Funk Master” for the fourth-round finish.
“At that point, I was like so I’m going to keep explaining myself for people to keep ignoring what I’m saying,” Sterling said. “So I was like you know what? I’m going to take pictures with the belt, here you go. I am the champ cause guess what? I am the champ! If you have a competition and you abide by the rules, the playoffs, NFL, overtime, and you commit a foul and an illegal move, you get penalized. If people say you shouldn’t be able to win the belt, you shouldn’t be able to win a fight because a fight is still a fight whether it’s a championship setting or it’s not.”
Sterling (20-3) will have the opportunity to silence the critics once and for all in the UFC 267 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event on Oct. 30 in Abu Dhabi, where “Funk Master” and Yan will get another five rounds to settle their bantamweight score.
To see who else is fighting at UFC 267 click here.