"Kind of like Ivan Drago vs. Rocky" - Aljamain Sterling accuses T.J. Dillashaw of "concocting" experiments with body while he puts in hard work
UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling continued his war of words with T.J. Dillashaw, accusing him of concocting experiments with his body. Sterling drew parallels to the Ivan Drago vs. Rocky fight from the 1985 film 'Rocky IV'.
In a new video on his FunkMasterMMA YouTube channel, Sterling mocked his upcoming opponent who was suspended by USADA for violating the UFC's anti-doping policy by saying:
"I'm going to be prepared, more than ready because while you're in the lab and concocting all types of experiments for your body, I'm actually in the lab putting in some physical work. That's the difference."
'Funk Master' added:
"This is kind of like Ivan Drago vs. Rocky, let's just leave it at that. One guy's out training in the woods doing it the old-school, hard way, blue-collared way, hard-working work ethic, blood sweat and tears, while the other guy is hooked up to these lab machines and getting injected with all kinds of sh*t. So that's T.J."
Sterling's reference is to Drago injecting steroids before his fight against Rocky, while the latter is seen climbing mountains in preparation for his fight. Rocky was out for vengeance after his friend Apollo Creed was killed by Drago in a previous fight.
The fight went on till the end before an uppercut by Rocky Balboa left Drago on the canvas after almost 15 rounds of fighting, ending in a brutal KO.
Dillashaw had tested positive for recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) ahead of his unsuccessful flyweight title challenge against Henry Cejudo back in 2019. However, the 36-year-old Californian will get a chance at redemption as he faces Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight title at UFC 280 on October 22 in Abu Dhabi.
Watch Aljamain Sterling hit back at Dillashaw below:
T.J. Dillashaw disappointed with fans disregarding his past achievements ahead of Aljamain Sterling fight
Dillashaw made a winning return to the sport after a lengthy absence against Cory Sandhagen last year. However, after his ban, he expressed his disappointment at being unable to re-enter the good graces of fight fans.
In an interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Dillashaw was asked about people bringing up his past. He replied:
"When I failed that drug test, they wanted to know if any of my accolades or anything else I did in the past was ever tied to that so they went back and retested all of my tests all the way back to 2016. Not only did I get tested once, they retested everything from 2016 up and obviously nothing came up."
#OnThisDay in 2014, @TJDillashaw ended the 33-fight unbeaten streak of Renan Barão to become the undisputed bantamweight champion🏆 https://t.co/OysHg6TNQv
A win over Aljamain Sterling would help him join the likes of Randy Couture as a three-time champion in a division, while also possibly earning the respect and love back from many of his fans.
Watch T.J. Dillashaw talk on The MMA Hour below (drug use discussion starts at 1:53:30):