Aljamain Sterling believes fans are overlooking his victory over Renan Barao.
This past Saturday night (July 29), Sterling took on Barao inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The bout was featured on the FXX preliminary portion of UFC 214. “The Funk Master” nabbed a unanimous decision victory.
It was a big win for Sterling as “The Baron” is a former bantamweight champion and was once considered one of the best fighters in the world. Despite the huge victory, Sterling told Luke Thomas of SiriusXM Rush that he’s isn’t feeling the love:
“I don’t know where I would rank myself. I probably guess top five definitely. I can’t really see any of those other guys doing that to Barao. People have been trying to downplay the win saying, ‘Barao’s not the same anymore, T.J. showed the blueprint, he changed him, USADA this USADA that.’ I mean Barao took shots to the chin and wore it pretty well. I’m gonna say if it was anybody else, it would’ve been a different result. Not everybody can do what I did to him.”
With the win, Sterling now finds himself at the seventh spot on the official UFC bantamweight rankings. That’s one spot above his previous position.