Aljamain Sterling is not obtuse to the problems on the ground that Brian Ortega presents but is confident in how his own skillset matches up with that in their UFC Fight Night 257 co-main event bout. This consequential contest at featherweight takes place in Shanghai on August 23rd.
Speaking to Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, the former UFC bantamweight champion covered several subjects as he aims to further climb the UFC's featherweight hierarchy by taking on a former multi-time title challenger at 145 pounds in the promotion. This Saturday will see Sterling and Ortega do battle for a higher rankings position with the number seven and number five ranked contenders in the division, respectively, testing skills.
When getting into the machinations of this massive matchup at 145 pounds this weekend, Sterling said,
"I think my style matches up well with him. He does have some tricky stuff off of his back and on top. He's pretty tough and has a really nasty head and arm choke. I haven't really seen him go for many other submissions, maybe a guillotine and a triangle, but overall he's pretty well versed with chokes, so I've got to be careful."
"I think my top pressure and passing game should be good enough to get to some good dominant positions. Hopefully, I can get to where I'm really strong, which is side control or the back mount."
Aljamain Sterling thinks UFC Shanghai bout being 5 rounds is "kind of f***ing stupid"
Aljamain Sterling is prepared for twenty five minutes of competition but is still unsure why the promotion booked his Brian Ortega bout for five rounds. This was expressed by Aljo during a recent interview with Mike Heck of MMA Fighting as Aljamain Sterling stated [via MMA Fighting],
“Yeah, I don’t know why it’s five rounds. I don’t know if Brian Ortega is the one who asked for five rounds. But like, five-round main events, if you’re not the champion, you get an extra pay incentive. So I’m kind of annoyed because we’re not getting extra pay for five rounds."
"I’m like, ‘Did he want to fight five rounds for no extra money?’ I think it’s kind of f*cking stupid. Like, what are we getting out of this? We’re not getting a trophy at the end of this, so why are we fighting five rounds? This is 10 extra minutes of training, 10 extra minutes of fighting. I don’t know. I legitimately do not know. We’ve got the same manager, so. I don’t want 5 rounds. Like, who wants to do five rounds? Who wants to fight more for the same pay rate that they’re going to get? It doesn’t make any sense.”