UFC featherweight Aljamain Sterling has explained why he isn’t a fan of his upcoming fight against Brian Ortega being five rounds instead of three.
This weekend, Aljamain Sterling will lock horns with Brian Ortega in the co-main event of UFC Shanghai. If he wins, the former bantamweight champion could vault himself right into title contention at 145 pounds. Of course, getting through Ortega is going to be easier said than done.
He will, however, have longer to do so, with Aljamain Sterling vs Brian Ortega being scheduled for five rounds instead of the usual three. While a lot of fighters tend to like getting more time to work, it turns out that isn’t the case for ‘Funk Master’, as he revealed in a recent interview.
Aljamain Sterling annoyed about five rounds in Brian Ortega fight
“Yeah, I don’t know why it’s five rounds,” Sterling told MMA Fighting. “I don’t know if Brian Ortega is the one who asked for five rounds. But like, five-round main events, if you’re not the champion, you get an extra pay incentive. So I’m kind of annoyed because we’re not getting extra pay for five rounds.
“I’m like, ‘Did he want to fight five rounds for no extra money?’ I think it’s kind of f*cking stupid. Like, what are we getting out of this? We’re not getting a trophy at the end of this, so why are we fighting five rounds? This is 10 extra minutes of training, 10 extra minutes of fighting. I don’t know. I legitimately do not know.
“We’ve got the same manager, so. I don’t want 5 rounds. Like, who wants to do five rounds? Who wants to fight more for the same pay rate that they’re going to get? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Quotes via MMA Fighting
Will he get the win he needs, fight fans?
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