UFC 288 - Legacy cemented
Before the weekend, there was a lot of discussions around legacy and GOAT conversations, applying to both fighters in the UFC 288 main event. In the end, the champion Aljamain Sterling had his hand raised, and cemented his place amongst the greatest at 135lbs.
Both Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo were chasing greatness heading into their bout at UFC 288, to add to their already high standing in the sport. In Cejudo’s case, the aim was to win back the belt he never lost and eventually adding a third belt to his collection, which would no doubt put him on the Mount Rushmore of MMA. For Sterling it it was all about adding to his bantamweight legacy, and beating a former two-weight world champion would certainly be a huge name on his resume. In the end, Aljamain Sterling was the one who had his hand raised in a very close split decision, which has sparked some controversy. This is what I want to focus on today, as Sterling’s championship run has been one of the weirdest ones I can think of, and I think it takes away from how good he actually is.
Let’s start with the time he won the belt at UFC 259. I don’t think anyone would disagree with the fact that Petr Yan was on his way to a convincing decision win before he threw the illegal knee. But that’s the important part, it was an ILLEGAL knee, which he rightly should be punished for. I also think people underestimate how much a blow like that would affect Sterling, even though some would say that he was over-exaggerating it a little bit. No matter what, I don’t mind that the fight got stopped, and whether it would’ve ended in a no contest or like it did, with Sterling winning the belt via DQ, a rematch was in order either way.
So heading into the rematch at UFC 273, a lot of fans were branding Sterling as a “fake champ”, especially considering Petr Yan had picked up the interim belt against Cory Sandhagen a few months prior. Once again though it ended in controversy, with Sterling edging out a split decision win to retain his belt. There were a lot of shouts for robbery, but in all honesty, the best outcome for Yan in my opinion would’ve been a draw. I found it baffling at the time that no judge scored the second round a 10-8 in Sterlings favour, and he clearly won round 3 too. Yan definitely won the last two, but even if he edged out a close round 1, he wouldn’t have won the belt. I personally scored it 48-46 Sterling (1,2,3 with round 2 being a 10-8), and I think all the robbery shouts are just nonsense.
His next defence was against TJ Dillashaw. A former two-time bantamweight champion, and one of the frontrunners for the best 135’er of all time. Again, I saw a lot of people going against Sterling, saying that TJ’s wrestling would be good enough to stop the aggressive grappling game of the champion. What people didn’t know though, was that TJ was coming into the fight with a shoulder injury. He said that his shoulder had popped out several times during fight camp, and he knew it would most likely happen during the fight as well. This of course did happen, and like we saw with Gilbert Burns at the weekend, fighting with one arm simply isn’t possible. Sterling ended up dominating TJ before securing a TKO finish on the ground in round 2. Ann all-time bantamweight great added to his resume, but he still wouldn’t get his flowers because “he only beat a guy with one arm”. Well, you can only beat what’s in front of you, and TJ himself made the decision not to pull out from the fight, that shouldn’t be a slight on Sterling at all.
And yet again this weekend, it ended with controversy. Sterling defeated Henry Cejudo via split decision (48-47, 48-47, 47-48), the biggest win of his career so far. Cejudo was the former flyweight champion, who then went up to challenge for the bantamweight title and defended it against one of the other great bantamweight in Dominick Cruz. Oh, and did I mention that he’s an Olympic gold medalist? It was a razor close fight, I will admit, but it was by no means a robbery. Rounds 1 and 4 were clear for Sterling, round 5 was clear for Cejudo and I also gave him round 2. That leaves the third round, which was super close. I personally scored it for Sterling, but if someone scored it for Cejudo that would also be completely reasonable. It is by no means a robbery, and just like the second Yan fight it boils down to this: NOT ALL CLOSE FIGHTS ARE ROBBERIES.
That term is being thrown around too much for my liking, and it takes away from decisions who are ACTUALLY robberies. It also downplays the performance and legacy of the winner, and in that sense Sterling has been really unlucky lately. He now holds the record for most wins in bantamweight history, and joint most title defences ever in the division (TJ Dillashaw and Cruz also has 3, but did it over multiple reigns), and still he doesn’t get the respect he deserves. But with the win streak he’s on, the calibre of competition that he’s beat and of course the title reign I am confident in saying that you could make an argument that he’s the best bantamweight of all time, and if he beats Sean O’Malley (who looks to be next), I don’t really think there’s a debate.