After defending the bantamweight title three consecutive times, Aljamain Sterling has established himself as the king of the division. He holds the record for the highest title defense in the division and is currently riding a nine-fight winning streak.
The Funkmaster earned his title in a very controversial way by the method of disqualification against Petr Yan. He was heavily criticized for faking the trauma inside the octagon and many even claimed he was undeserving of the title. However, Sterling silenced all his haters after he won the second fight against Petr Yan via a split decision.
MAIN EVENT : ALJAMAIN STERLING VS. SEAN O’MALLEY 🤯
L’HISTOIRE VA ÊTRE MARQUÉE 😤#UFC292 pic.twitter.com/zcMsG7vAof
— CULTURE MMA (@CultureMMA_) August 17, 2023
Now, the 34-year-old is looking forward to extending his title defense at UFC 292 against Sean O’Malley and eventually moving up a division. Despite having a dominant run at bantamweight, Sterling is not undefeated. He has amassed a record of 22 wins and 3 losses throughout his professional fighting career.
Aljamain faced those three losses early on in UFC and one of them even landed them in the hospital. Let’s take a look at the bantamweight champion’s losses.
Aljamain Sterling losses in UFC
UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling made his MMA debut by fighting Sergio Da Silva in 2011. The fight took place in UCC 4 and Sterling won the fight via a unanimous decision. After the win, Aljamain kept on winning bouts to amass a record of 12 wins and 0 losses and even called out Floyd Mayweather in the process.
However, the winning streak soon came to an end after he fought Brian Caraway. The bout took place at UFC Fight Night in 2016 and Bryan was the taller fighter standing 5 feet 8 inches tall. While Sterling managed to win the first round, he could not keep up with Kid Lightning’s pace.
Both fighters fought the whole three rounds and Sterling lost the fight via a split decision. One judge scored the bout in Sterling’s favor with a scorecard of 29-28. However, the other two gave the same score to Bryan Caraway.
His next fight with Raphael Assuncao bore the same results as Sterling lost the fight via split decision again. While Aljamain Sterling managed to outwork, Raphael in the last round it was simply not enough. Aljo lost via the same score from his last fight and went straight back to the drawing board.
Aljamain Sterling gets brutally finished by Marlon Moraes in the first round
After going through a two-fight losing streak against Bryan Caraway and Raphael Assuncao, Sterling made certain changes. He managed to redeem himself by going on a winning streak against his opponents Augusto Mendes and Renan Barao through a unanimous decision.
The Funkmaster tried going for a win in the next fight as well but the third time’s not always the charm. He was scheduled to fight Bantamweight fighter Marlon Moraes at UFC Fight Night in 2017. Both fighters managed to make weight and Moraes was the shorter fighter by an inch going into the fight.
Moraes charged aggressively and dominated the fight from the get-go. Sterling surprisingly caught Magic in an armbar but Marlon managed to get out of it easily. Moments later, Sterling tried another takedown on his opponent only to get knocked out in the first round.
He received a brutal knee to the face from Marlon, ending the fight in 67 seconds. While he made a safe recovery from the knockout, he was immediately transported to the hospital for precautionary measures. Funkmaster later revealed in an interview that he was overlooking Moraes which cost him very dearly.
Since the loss, Aljamain learned to never look past an opponent and take every opponent seriously. Now, the bantamweight champion is riding a huge winning streak that he looks to extend at UFC 292. Will Sterling be able to defend his title yet again? Leave us your opinions in the comments below.