LAS VEGAS – Aljamain Sterling is honing in on a possible opponent for his 145-pound debut.
Sterling (23-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) plans on moving up to featherweight for his next fight after losing his bantamweight title to Sean O’Malley at UFC 292.
“The Funkmaster” is targeting the upper echelon of the division right off the bat. He sees Calvin Kattar (23-7 MMA, 7-5 UFC), who’s on the cusp of returning from knee surgery, as his likely next opponent for UFC 299 on March 9.
“Realistic scenario is probably myself and Calvin Kattar,” Sterling told MMA Junkie on the World MMA Awards red carpet. “He’s the only one that doesn’t have a fight and has been out for a bit, as well. At this point, come March, I’m probably going to be out for a bit as well. So with that said, I think that’s going to be the fight.”
But if it were up to Sterling, he’d fight former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway (25-7 MMA, 21-7 UFC), who currently doesn’t have a fight booked.
“The Max Holloway fight would be a nice one – two former champions going at it,” Sterling said. “Max doesn’t really have much to do right now unless he’s going up to ’55. That’s still speculation.
“But if he gets bored … Max, ‘the best is Blessed’ but, ‘Funky’ has got something to say about that, as well. If you do decide to hang around at ’45, it would be an absolute honor to share the octagon with you.”
