Aljamain Sterling’s support for Andrew Tate was worsened by comments the UFC bantamweight champion made about a woman’s ‘responsibility’ for ‘making safe decisions.’
Aljamain Sterling spent a solid year getting hated on by a small but vocal portion of the MMA community after he won the UFC bantamweight championship via disqualification. His opponent Petr Yan illegally kneed him in the head. Yan fans (and Aljo haters) insisted Sterling overplayed the damage the knee did, faking his way into becoming champion.
That hate finally started to dissipate after Sterling beat Yan in a rematch. But now Sterling is facing even more hate from another group of MMA fans who are appalled that “Funkmaster” proudly associated with Andrew Tate.
Who is Tate? It depends on who you ask. Some refer to him a ‘controversial social media influencer.’ Others prefer to label him as a ‘Eastern European sex-cam mogul.’ Others simply say he’s a misogynistic POS.
However you want to frame it, Sterling found himself being attacked by a lot of people — many of them former supporters — after sharing pictures with Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan in Abu Dhabi.
“Top G’s never die!” Sterling wrote on the post. “Good chopping it up with you fellas.”
Top G’s never die! Good chopping it up with you fellas
•#Dubai #TopG #TateBrothers #UFC280 pic.twitter.com/Rov8hKnthe— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 15, 2022
He then made the whole situation a million times worse by defending one of Tate’s arguments that women are ‘responsible’ for making ‘safe decisions’ so they don’t get raped.
100% correct. Also said was, with all the mental health issues, and predators out there, why walk home by yourself at odd hours of the night, in sketchy places?
That was the responsibility he mentioned for making safe decisions, which makes sense, although doesn’t justify rape https://t.co/kAuC0QsPzp
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 16, 2022
That did not go over well with anyone. So now a man who is set to compete in a world championship fight next Saturday is spending his Sunday prior trying to convince people he’s not a rape apologist.
200 characters. Trust me I explained nauseam already. But you don’t care about that. You rather read and jump to conclusions about what claim I’m saying vs what I’m actually saying. Again, it’s been explained for clarity over 200 characters multiple times.
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 16, 2022
You’re right by now they’re out in mass numbers trying to put words in my tweets that were never written. Coming from guy with 14+ sisters. Like seriously, how do these folks even sound to think I would encourage that, or say it’s the victims fault? Crazy man.
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 16, 2022
Yes exactly. So by this you agree that there are dangerous, perverted and sick ppl out there, correct? So why encourage men, females, and kids to put themselves in harms way because we hope ppl do the right thing? You missed the point.
Sick ppl are sick ppl man. That’s all. https://t.co/RgfTnnP5C3
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 16, 2022
Thank you and that’s more than fair to say. I don’t agree with him on how he says stuff but some of what he says isn’t completely over the top or crazy. But everyone wants something to be mad about. Again, I don’t support rape and somehow “be as safe as you can be” gets twisted https://t.co/u8672QWk9t
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 16, 2022
Aljo finished things off by pointing out that he’s not the only combat sports guy supporting Tate.
I practice self-defense, and spreading love. Anyone that thinks otherwise don’t know me at all. I appreciate my real fans. Thank you. https://t.co/xHFye26yti
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 16, 2022
And he’s right: Andrew Tate has been weaseling his way into the MMA world over the past several months, trying to use the influence of UFC fighters and boxers to maintain his own clout. Sadly, it’s been working. It’d be nice to assume it’s because fighters don’t bother to look into Tate after being impressed by his charismatic persona. But Tate’s greasy behavior is always brought up, only to be dismissed by his supporters.
Aljamain Sterling spent a good portion of his day questioning the veracity of several videos showing Tate beating women, and pointed out that Tate has only been investigated for human trafficking by Romanian police, not charged.
We can go back n forth with “full” length videos to discredit this, although I agree some things tow the line until you listen in its entirety to hear the full statement. But I really don’t care that much haha.
If you want him as the bad guy, the content is there and vice versa https://t.co/jfRNfEpwuJ
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 16, 2022
Rather than try to argue over those massive red flags, we’ll just point to the words on Tate’s own website, where he sells mentoring and self-help packages for young men. One of these packages was the PHD program, which stands for ‘Pimping Hoes Degree.’ This package had a description which has since been deleted.
“I’ve been running a webcam studio for nearly a decade,” Tate wrote on the site. “I’ve had over 75 girls work for me, and my business model is different than 99% of webcam studio owners. Over 50% of my employees were actually my girlfriend at the time and, of all my girlfriends, NONE were in the adult entertainment industry before they met me.”
“Literally, that was my job,” he continued. “My job was to meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test if she’s quality, get her to fall in love with me to where she’d do anything I say, and then get her on webcam so we could become rich together. Whether you agree or disagree with what I did with their loyalty, submission, and love for me doesn’t matter. You cannot reject the results, and the results are simple. My girlfriends would do more for me than 99.9% of men’s wives would do for them.”
“SO WHO IS ANDREW TATE?” another part of the site read. “Andrew Tate is world champion kickboxer who owns and operates strip clubs and webcam studios. With over 75 girls working for him, he has created a system that allows you to get girls quickly, easily and without spending money.”
“Do you wanna learn how to get the odd girl from a pickup artist,” it continues “Or learn how to build an army of women who are so loyal to you that they allow you to have as many girls as you want? MORE IMPORTANTLY, he has a FOOLPROOF system for retaining women, having them do as you say and respecting you without taking up or wasting large amounts of your time.”
If that’s the kind of person Aljamain Sterling wants to be associating with or supporting, that’s his choice. But it’s a gross one, and people are gonna judge him for it, no matter how much he tries to justify it on Twitter.