Aljamain Sterling, or Aljo as he is affectionately know by his teammates, is a 25 year-old fighter in the UFC’s Bantamweight division. Aljo fights out of Uniondale, New York out of Serra-Longo Fight Team. He is undefeated in his professional career and is on pace to do big things in the division.
Sterling was a successful collegiate wrestler out of SUNY-Cortland where he went 87-27 and was a two-time NCAA Division III All-American. Aljamain earned an early title win over Claudio Ledesma in the Ring of Combat promotion, and then fought with Cage Fury Fighting Championships before finding his way to the UFC.
He has looked nothing short of amazing in his two bouts inside the octagon beating Cody Gibson by UD, and finishing off TUF: Brazil veteran Hugo Viana by way of ref stoppage.
I got a chance to talk with Aljo about his journey to the UFC, and what it takes to succeed in the sport.
Aaron Robbins: Thanks for taking some time for me. Why don’t you give us some background for the the fans that aren’t fully aware of you yet?
Aljamain Sterling: “I got started when I was over in Cortland, I used to go to school with a guy, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him, his name is Jon Jones, I know he’s not really popular or anything (laughs). I started getting into it through him. I saw a couple of pictures on MySpace of him training. I came down once to train, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I knew it was something that I wanted to do because I’m so competitive in everything I do. I always try to win no matter what the debate is, or what the game is. It’s just in my nature to want to compete.
“My life right now is pretty hectic, I teach during the day, after that I run some open mats or open lifts for the guys in school that wrestle for me. I usually try to get my training in after that, but sometimes I get my lift in with the guys that I’m training. I usually end up training at night. I’m at the point right now where I’m trying to get rid of my substitute-teaching job so I can train full time.”
AR: You are a substitute-teacher. A lot of fans don’t understand that even though you have the UFC profile, you still have to support yourself with a day-to-day job. Tell the fans the struggle involved with having a job and still training at the level you do to compete.
AS: “It’s a different beast, you know. You’re training in a sport where you never know what kind of opponent you’re going to get. You never know what their situation, or journey is. You want to give yourself the biggest advantage you can, and one of the biggest is training full-time. Training two or three times a day makes a huge difference in my eyes. I’ve seen the differences in my own performances between where I’m working or where I’m just focused on my training. It’s not like we are driving Bentleys or making the money some of the fans think we do. It’s more for the love of the sport. I just love to compete, it’s something I’ve loved since wrestling. I went through years of wrestling where you train and compete and don’t get paid at all. Then you tell me I can do pretty much the same thing plus I get to punch people in the face, and get paid for it? That’s pretty much a no-brainer. Obviously, the more success you have, the better the perks. I do this with the passion of a dream coming to fruition, and making it big.”
AR: So you’re an educated guy doing substitute-teaching. Tell the fans what you teach.
AS: “I teach Physical Education. Most people think we just come out and roll the balls out for kids to play and that’s it, but the degree is a lot harder to get than most people realize. We have to take high level science courses, and it’s a lot of work, and we know a lot more than what most people give us credit for”
AR: What do your family and friends think about you being a fighter?
AS: “I think my friends think its really bad-ass, I don’t really know what my family thinks about it. I don’t really talk too much about it with them. They know what I do, but they are kind of young and I don’t think they understand what goes into it. They saw my last two fights on TV, or my fights previous to that, and I usually come home scratch-free. I don’t think they think of it as something dangerous. They can’t really wrap their heads around it.”
AR: How about your students? They have got to be impressed having Mr. Sterling, UFC fighter, as their teacher.
AS: “They love it dude. Right now I’m teaching at the Middle School, and a bunch of kids come up just about every day and heckle me with, you can’t beat me, and I can take you. Some of them are brave and want to feel what it’s like to take a punch (laughs), or they’ll ask me to teach them to box. It’s cool. I’ve taken some pictures with some of the kids, and signed some autographs. I think it’s huge that I’ve come from this community, and now I’m giving back, I think they appreciate that. They get to see someone from the same place as them being successful, it’s a blessing for me to be able to do this.”
AR: You were supposed to fight tonight (October 4th, 2014) but were unable due to a hand injury, is that correct?
AS: “Yeah, it’s kind of depressing. I took the fight knowing that my hand was a little injured. I let Sean Shelby know that. I started training, and ramped it up a bit and started cracking pads, and it just got so much worse. I had to pull out of the fight, I couldn’t even throw punches. Just holding my weight up, or shaking people’s hands was killing me. It really bummed me out because I live by the wrestling mentality that no matter what is wrong, you still compete. So it was a huge mental upset for me. I think I made the right choice though, because I want my next performance to be something that everybody remembers. I’m trying to go after the title. I don’t want to go in there and eek out little wins. I want to frigging dominate.”
AR: How’s the hand feeling?
AS: “It’s a lot better, I would say it’s about 80%. I’m sparring again and able to hit with it. I’m not able to crack with it like I want to yet, but it’s healing fast. I’m taking it easy so I don’t reset the clock again.”
AR: Aljo is there anything I haven’t asked you that you would like the fans to know about you?
AS: “Yeah, my parents are Jamaican, I make good-ass Lava Cakes from scratch, and I cut my own hair.” (laughs)
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Main photo courtesy of Sherdog
