‘I Am A Main Card Fighter’

Aljamain Sterling was left confused by his relegation to the prelims.

After scoring a unanimous resolution victory over Calvin Kattar in his featherweight debut at UFC 300, the ‘Funk Master’ returns to the Octagon this Saturday night at UFC 310 in Las Vegas. Sterling is ready to sq. off with Movsar Evloev in a bout that was initially scheduled to go down in October till Sterling suffered an injury.

Over the past a number of years, Sterling has been a mainstay on fundamental playing cards and in fundamental occasions. Nevertheless, his position on the ultimate pay-per-view of the yr will see him take a spot on the prelims — a place he’s not precisely thrilled with.

“I didn’t know if I ought to have been insulted by the location on the struggle card or glass half-full,” Sterling mentioned in a video on his YouTube channel. “I suppose that’s the easiest way I attempt to take a look at every thing in life. I get to struggle earlier and get to be accomplished earlier. I used to be a bit confused by it, after all. I suppose they’ve their rhyme or purpose for what they do, the UFC brass, and it’s what it’s.

“On the finish of the day, it’s not my group. I don’t name the photographs. I simply go on the market and compete, and it’s as much as me to go on the market and show these guys incorrect that I’m a fundamental card fighter. I feel individuals are gonna be in for a really massive shock, and the UFC is gonna notice we tousled massive time by not placing this on the primary card” (h/t MMA Mania).

Does Aljamain Sterling have some extent?

To be truthful, Sterling has not competed on the prelims since his win over Pedro Munhoz at UFC 238 greater than 5 years in the past. The lone exception throughout that timeframe was his scrap with Kattar at UFC 300 — an occasion so stacked that two former UFC champions were the curtain-jerkers.

Why Dana White and Co. opted to maintain Sterling off the primary card is anybody’s guess, but when we’re being sincere, his three-round scrap with Kattar didn’t precisely set the world on fireplace, nor did Evloev’s final outing in opposition to Arnold Allen in January.