Aljamain Sterling Talks Fighter Pay Misconceptions, Has Multiple Game Plans For Dillashaw

Aljamain Sterling sets the record straight on fighter payment and the game plans for his next bout.

Aljamain Sterling
Aljamain Sterling on Instagram

Aljamain Sterling is not afraid to reveal his secrets. 

In the UFC world, many times fighters try to keep things like their purses and game plans out of the public eye. That is not the case with bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling. Sterling has recently been very open about his contract, payment, and negotiations with the UFC. On his YouTube channel, Sterling can often be seen pulling back the curtain and giving fans the real deal about how the fighters are paid and how the contracts get made. 

Recently Sterling was a guest on The MMA Hour and was asked about this very subject. The champ explained why he isn’t afraid to keep such a personal topic public. 

“For the most part, it has been public information, like it’s really just a Google search away. So it’s not like this information is hidden from everybody,” Sterling said. “The biggest perk that we have is that we fight on this platform, and we have an opportunity to market ourselves. I’m grateful for that, we have, what, 10 million plus people that we can reach out to with the UFC network, I’m probably underplaying that and that gives us an opportunity to pull ourselves in a different way, although we’re not making the coin that the NFL, MLB players, and those type of leagues make but we have opportunity to try to capitalize on that. The only difference is those sports don’t have to do that they’re just taken care of. We have to try to use this platform to try to elevate ourselves to appeal to the masses in order to help make that extra money and that’s the only difference other than that. I make good money I can’t complain.”

Sterling is the current champion of the bantamweight division and is coming off his very first title defense. His next time out will be against TJ Dillashaw in Abu Dhabi on October 22. He’s doing well in his sport and has an interest in making money outside of fighting as well. He has his YouTube channel and is looking to create a rum brand. Things are going well for Sterling but with all the outside success, he is not overlooking his next fight against a former champion in TJ Dillashaw. 

Aljamain Sterling Has multiple gameplans in place for TJ Dillashaw

“I have different game plans. Like even the fight will yawn I had three different game plans. The first one was I was going to attack them the same way I did the first fight, except the difference was I would have the actual energy and the reserve to do it. You know, it’s not like I can’t do I did it the entire training camp. And then if he came out aggressive, I’m like, Okay, then we’ll play Matador and then when we pick them apart from the outside, take the shots that we could take. And then when he overextends himself, we take his ass down. And then there was another one where it’s just like shit hits the fan, he gets much better than what he was in the first fight. Then we bite down on our mouthpiece and we just go for broke. Now those were the game plan scenarios for me, you know, so I think what TJ I kind of got a similar perspective on this, you know, so we’ll see what he decides to do and go about it like that. That’s really the way I prep for fights. I don’t try to think too much” 

The bout with Dillashaw will be part of the UFC 280 Pay-Per-View event. The fight was originally discussed for a different event, but Sterling is ok with the change. He explained that he will get to fight overseas for the first time and due to Abu Dhabi law, he will not be taxed on his fight purse. All he has to do now is go out there and win. 

Published on August 10, 2022 at 3:38 pm
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