Aljamain Sterling shares four-word reaction to making it on Islam Makhachev's list of fighters who deserve their BJJ black belts
Lightweight king Islam Makhachev defended his strap for the fourth time in a row, submitting Renato Moicano via a D’Arce choke in the first round of the main event at UFC 311.
With that, the Dagestani phenom has now submitted five Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, including Dustin Poirier, Charles Oliveira, and Moicano.
Given his grappling prowess, the lightweight king is in a strong position to assess the jiu-jitsu mettle of others. And Aljamain Sterling shared a four-word reaction to making it on Makhachev's list of fighters who deserve their Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts.
In an interview with ESPN MMA, the reigning lightweight champion said:
“I check who have real black belt, who don’t have real black belt."
In a previous interview with Hosheh MMA, the Dagestani was asked to share his views on fighters holding BJJ black belts. Makhachev opined that Tom Aspinall and Aljamain Sterling have good grappling skills and deserve theirs, but Poirier, Paddy Pimblett, and Tony Ferguson are not on the same level.
ESPN MMA’s recent Instagram post was captioned:
"Islam Makhachev has now submitted five BJJ black belts including Charles Oliveira, Dustin Poirier and Renato Moicano 🥋 Islam is becoming the unofficial ‘Black Belt Checker’ 😅 #UFC311"
Sterling was impressed that he had made “the cut" on Makhachev’s list of fighters, commenting:
"I made the cut 😁🥲"
Renato Moicano breaks down his loss against Islam Makhachev
Renato Moicano was originally scheduled to square off against Beneil Dariush. However, after Arman Tsarukyan’s 11th-hour withdrawal because of an injury, the Brazilian stepped in to save the main event and fight Islam Makhachev. Moicano was submitted in round one.
In a recent video on the Brazilian's YouTube channel, he broke down the match and his mistakes. He talked about how the champion made him expose his neck, which resulted in the D’Arce choke:
“When I started to create the space in the scrambles to get back on the feet, he kind of gave me the sense that I could put my foot on his hips and get back up. But he did that so I could expose my neck. Then he grabbed with a D’Arce choke and was very fast. That’s why I tapped so fast because it was very locked.”
Check out Renato Moicano's comments below (4:45):