"I feel like I was the undisputed champ at that time" - Aljamain Sterling insists his win over Cory Sandhagen should have been for the vacant bantamweight title
UFC bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling believes that his win against Cory Sandhagen at UFC 250 should have been a title match.
The UFC bantamweight champion recently spoke with Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole about a variety of topics, including his recovery from a neck injury and his upcoming rematch against Petr Yan at UFC 273.
Yan and Sterling squared off at UFC 259 last year, with the Russian's gold strap on the line. Yan was in the lead until he was disqualified for an illegal knee that connected with 'The Funkmaster' while he was down. Sterling was declared the champion without a proper fight. As a result, he became the first UFC fighter to win the belt via disqualification.
The doctor has called off the fight after speaking to Aljamain Sterling, who was struck with an illegal knee by Petr Yan at #UFC259 https://t.co/oRLduQfraV
During an interview with Yahoo Sports, Sterling was asked if he ever felt the need to justify his victory over Yan. In response, he stated that his fight against Sandhagen at UFC 250 deserved to be a tlte match rather than the fight against Yan and hence, he never really felt the need to validate his belt win.
Speaking further on this, he said:
"We [Sandhagen and himself] were the two highest credentialed athletes who had the best accolades, we should have been fighting for the vacant title. But these guys [Petr Yan] somehow end up fighting for a vacant title. You know, so in my opinion, just based on that I'm the champ... I was the undisputed champ at that time and people could say well you didn't actually fight for the belt. Okay, that's because UFC does things the way that they want to do it but if we are going by the merit system, logically that belt should have been for the vacant title[ UFC 250]."
You can check out the entire episode of the interview below:
Aljamain Sterling gives his take on the viral Will Smith incident
Aljamain Sterling recently sympathized and extended his support to Will Smith after the actor's controversial actions at the Oscars.
Check out the tweet below:
Will Smith and Denzel Washington. Two bosses in my book. Hold your head Will. We all have moments of being REAL people. Especially the ones pointing the finger. twitter.com/GMA/status/150…
While appearing on a recent episode of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, 'The Funk Master' said:
"I guess my point is: we're all human. We all have breaking points. I think people forget that you're trying to tell this man when his limit is and where his threshold is. That's wrong! That to me is wrong. You can't tell me, I should feel this way at this time in this place and I should be able to contain myself at this time, in this place."
Check out Aljamain Sterling's full interview below: