Aljamain Sterling Wants Title Shot After Beating Youssef Zalal

When a UFC fighter’s title reign at a weight class is done, or if they have run out of realistic chances to gain a division’s belt, sometimes they will switch weight classes to try to give their career new life. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always go for the better.

But for Aljamain Sterling, it really seems to have gone pretty well, at least so far.

UFC Vegas 116 had an intriguing main event. You had Sterling, a former UFC bantamweight champion, looking to prove he belongs in the upper echelon of contenders for UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. And Sterling’s opponent was Youssef Zalal, unbeaten since the end of his first run with the UFC. Returning to the Octagon in 2024, he was 5-0 entering this bout.

Sterling and Zalal started things competitively, though Sterling seemed to have a slight edge in terms of striking. But where Sterling really had control? The ground, of course.

Even with Zalal developing into a strong, well-rounded fighter, Sterling spent half of round one on top, controlling the action. He continued this into the second round, which played similarly to the first, with Sterling adding in some ground-and-pound before the round’s end.

Sterling did face a little trouble, however, in the third round. Firstly, Zalal managed to lock up a decent guillotine that Sterling had to work his way out of. Zalal also got to work on Sterling’s back and had his best striking in the entire frame.

But why is everyone calling this performance dominant? Because after facing that trouble, “Funkmaster” gave Zalal hell right back – and then some.

The fourth round of this fight was perhaps one of the most dominant seen in the Octagon so far this year. Sterling had over four minutes of control time in this round, dominating with strong ground-and-pound and submission attempts. It was unanimously agreed by the judges, and a lot of the MMA community, that it was a 10-8 round.

By the time the fifth ended, Sterling secured almost 14 minutes – nearly three full rounds – of control time on the ground. His wrestling was on full display and led to him scoring the decision win.

Sterling – who entered this fight No. 5 in the UFC’s featherweight rankings – made a statement in this fight that he is a legitimate threat to the championship. The question is, how much closer does this fight get him to the title shot?

Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy fought to a controversial decision last month. Evloev got the win – and many feel he is long overdue for a shot at the title. Others had it scored for Murphy, and several (this writer included) had the bout scored a draw.

Jean Silva is ranked right behind Sterling as of now. And when Dana White, UFC CEO and President, spoke following the Evloev vs. Murphy fight, you could see a look on his face when a reporter suggested the possibility of Silva jumping the two of them to challenge Volkanovski.

Then, you have a performance like this from Sterling to mix things up even more. The only sure-fire thing is that Diego Lopes, who has now lost twice to Volkanovski, won’t be getting a title shot.

But if Sterling doesn’t get a title shot, perhaps he next faces Lopes in a title eliminator to try and lock one up.

One thing to take away from this dominant win over a rising contender – even as he nears 37 years of age, Aljamain Sterling hasn’t shown he’s going away any time soon.