Aljamain Sterling was admittedly at a crossroads in his career heading into Saturday’s fight against Calvin Kattar at UFC 300.
Sterling made his featherweight debut against New England Cartel Standout, scoring a stunning unanimous decision victory in a stifling fight. “The Funk Master” nullified all of Kattar’s attacks, but many believe he would have been better off aggressively aiming for the finish. The former bantamweight champion insists he is in the fight to get to the top of the ladder and would consider retirement before the bout if he lost.
“I think if I got kicked thoroughly by Calvin Kattar, it probably would have been over. And no one knew about it, and I didn’t share that feeling with anyone, not even my fiance. . It’s just one of those things,” Sterling said on “The MMA Hour.”
“I mean, I told her, ‘If I don’t beat him, I don’t know.’ But I didn’t elaborate on what that actually meant… My inner thought is, “This person is a good person, but if I am who I think I am and who I claim to be, then I feel like…” It was something. I should be able to defeat this guy. If you can’t do that, how can you defeat the man currently sitting at the top of the throne? ”
For Sterling, whose walkaround weight is 165 to 168 pounds, the desire to make it to bantamweight has always been tough. Sterling had a good cut to featherweight, but he claims it was more difficult than he expected. When he was about to give up, Sterling doubled his salary and focused on his ultimate goal of getting closer to title glory. The New Yorker also admits that financial security sometimes makes him question his motivations for fighting.
“It was definitely still challenging and still difficult. I was really surprised, I thought it would get a little bit easier. But there was a part of me that was thinking, ‘I lost too much weight.’ There are so many other things I want to do right now,” Sterling said.
“Then I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s think about the end goal.’ The end goal – win this fight, get paid enough, even if you win, get paid, get paid twice. And If we win this game, we’ll have a chance to get our name back in the title conversation again.” So it’s all a matter of perspective, and why? Keep it true. Some of these guys try to pretend like, “Oh, I’m bulletproof with this,” and make it a show, but people have these thoughts going through their heads, and they’re like, “Oh, I’m bulletproof now.” It’s like, ‘What the heck am I?’ Are you still here? I had several million yen in the bank. Why am I still doing this? you know what i mean? Therefore, such thoughts arise. they are normal. But I love to compete and I think that’s what drives me to keep moving forward and trying to achieve bigger things. ”
