A battle between Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov has been scheduled to take place at UFC 311 co-main event. The battle is one many fans are eager to see despite being a short-notice fight, but Aljamain Sterling doesn’t share in the elation. Sterling believes the fight is short notice and doesn’t give the fighters enough time to prepare. He accused UFC of doing the same to him when he fought Sean O’Malley.
Although Sterling has no stake in the fight, he beleieves UFC should do the right thing and let their fighters have a say on when they fight.
“I don’t like anyone getting short-sided, blindsided, having to take something on short notice. I mean, let’s be honest, this fight is being made on six weeks’ notice? Maybe six-and-a-half. For a title fight? I mean, I understand having to do that if you’re a challenger, but as a champion, you shouldn’t be relegated to those types of stipulations.
“It’s just not right,” Sterling said to Ariel Helwani. “Then it leaves a bad taste in your mouth as in. ‘Why did I work so hard to get to this position to call the shots or some of the shots?’ And you’re not even getting a fair shake in it. Hopefully, we go out there, knock on wood. Merab does his thing, he takes his 0, puts on a great performance, and we can move on from this and on to the next.”
Sterling also has his own woes and is recently coming off a loss that may spell a shift in his career. The former UFC bantamweight champion has had two challenging fights since moving up the division. He battled Calvin Kattar and won, but his recent loss to Movsar Evloev at UFC310 has fans wondering if the fighter should still be in the game.
The fighter has mentioned moving up the ladder once again but he is still unsure about his decision.
“I want to compete,” Sterling said in an interview with Ariel Helwani. “I just love it so much. Even when I was at Tampa watching the fights. There’s just something very, very addictive about the walk, the competing, the waiting period. The only thing that sucks, honestly, is the weight cut. Weight-cutting is just such a stain on the sport overall, but once that part’s done, the excitement of the training and then going in there competing in front of the world. I don’t think there’s any high like that. There really isn’t.
“For me to hang it up when I know I still have gas in the tank. I feel like I would be doing something that I might regret later on whereas it’s going to be like. ‘Damn, I wish I would have just done a few more when I know I had the physical capability of still doing it’ versus when I’m in my 40s and I’m looking back like. ‘Man, I could have done one more. I should have did it.’ So that’s where I’m at.”
Sterling had a good run in the bantamweight division, but he might be finding it a bit tricky getting his game on in the featherweight. For now, the fighter is still seeking opponents and has named Arnold Allen and Brian Ortega as two top opponents he would like to battle in the octagon.
“I think [fighting Arnold in] London would give me 12 weeks or something like that, or 10,” Sterling said. “I think that’s ideal. This way I can help Merab and then have him finish up his camp for Umar. I can help out Nazim [Sadykhov] for his fight with [Ismael] Bonfim and then I can jumpstart my camp with the Umar camp and be ready for a March turnaround.
“Either him or Ortega, I heard he’s going up to 155. I love Ortega. He’s the man. Dude’s super chill, but we’re not best friends or anything, so I don’t have a problem calling him out. It’s not anything disrespectful. … A fight with Ortega if he stays at ‘45, i would love that fight. He doesn’t have to worry about me maybe cracking him like Diego Lopes or anything like that, which makes it more fun in the sense of maybe we have a standup fight because his jiu-jitsu is very threatening. I’m not looking to play jiu-jitsu with Brian, because he might be better at that than I am, so I think it makes for a fun fight. It could be a fun standup fight or maybe a fun grappling fight as well.
“Or Arnold Allen, I think we both have very close fights [with Evloev], some people think he beat Movsar. We’re like the two defaults, but he said he’s fighting Yair Rodriguez, that’s what he commented on my post. I said, fair play, if he is fighting him then OK, cool; if not, then I would like to see him in March.”
