Aljamain Sterling Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

UFC champion puts Dana White on notice for disrespectful rant

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated 5/22/23

Despite his apprehension of having only a three-and-a-half-month recovery period between fights, Aljamain Sterling appears to be on board with defending his UFC bantamweight championship against Sean O’Malley at UFC 292 in Boston on Aug. 19.

Sterling’s concerns about not having enough time to recover from his five-round unanimous decision win over Henry Cejudo on May 6 were shrugged off by UFC president Dana White, who told reporters Sterling just “can’t get out of his own way.”

The 33-year-old champion responded to White’s criticism on a recent episode of “The Weekly Scraps” podcast, in which he went in on bashing the UFC president.

“Let me be the character, but get me in on the joke,” Sterling said of White portraying him as the bad guy. “Let’s get on the joke together, but not when you’re going to keep doing this stuff and then making me look like I’m a b----. No, you’re not going to keep doing that, dog. F--- out of here; Dana, get out of here with that.”

Gonna drag their poster boy all over the canvas in Boston.
•#SnapTheTwig #4TimeFunk #UFC292 pic.twitter.com/MY4Wxbi6WM
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) May 22, 2023

If the 135-pound title fight does indeed happen at UFC 292, it would mark just a 105-day period between fights for Sterling, the second-shortest of his career and the shortest amount of time he’s had between his four title fights.

Sterling claimed he’s fought injured for the sake of selling pay-per-views for the UFC before, disclosing that he had stem cell therapy prior to his fight with Cejudo and stating he fought former champions Petr Yan and T.J. Dillashaw with partially-torn biceps.

“Every single time they’ve asked me to fight, I’ve saddled up, put my nuts on the table, and showed up every single time,” Sterling said. “And I won. It’s just like, at what point do I get credit from the UFC and Uncle Dana? … When I look at all of that, I’m like, ‘What else could you possibly want from a champion who is active, competing, doing the stuff that you ask of him, promote the fight,’ and I’m out here in these streets working.”

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