Aljamain Sterling is inching closer towards a featherweight move.
Former UFC bantamweight champion Sterling (23-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) teased a potential jump to 145 pounds before losing his title to Sean O’Malley at UFC 292, and now he’s on the verge of seeing it through.
“The Funkmaster” recently underwent testing at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, and revealed that he’s been offered a fight with Calvin Kattar, among other names.
“Checking my weight, lean body mass vs. fat mass in my entire body, and I actually check out to be an average-sized featherweight,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “Which is crazy to me because every time I look at these featherweights, I think they’re so much bigger than me. It’s very interesting to see the numbers, see the data, see how my strength wracks up, my endurance.”
Sterling, who’s had a sizeable advantage over most bantamweights he’s faced, wanted to make sure his body was right before committing to changing divisions. He likes what he sees so far.
“It gave me a lot more comfort in where I’m at and making the move to 145,” Sterling continued. “But, I got one other thing I want to do this next week. As of right now, my mindset is definitely leaning towards 145, for featherweight. I wanna do one more round of testing on my own.
“Psychologically, I still feel like I need to be the biggest guy because that’s just what I did at bantamweight, what I’ve done as a wrestler. Psychologically, I need to make sure I’m going to be OK where I know that when I step in there, I feel comfortable, confident that I can win and I can compete with guys in that weight class.”
Sterling hopes to draw former champion Max Holloway in his featherweight debut. He took to social media to continue his pitch.
