2024-02-10 22:18:56
Sterling has moved up to featherweight, but he won’t be able to withstand the competition with Volkanovski and Topuria
İdman.biz presents an article with a link to livesport.ru.
Aljamain Sterling lost his bantamweight belt last summer and announced a move to another division
1. Incredible competition at featherweight
Over the past year and a half, the featherweight division has become very competitive. Veterans of the division like Volkanovski, Holloway, Rodriguez, Ortega and even Emmett did not say their last word.
Although the current champion lost 2 fights to Islam Makhachev in the lightweight division last year, he has never lost to anyone on his own territory. Max Holloway also gives convincing performances. “The Blessed One” knocks out one opponent after another, not letting anyone near the title holder.
In addition to the stellar veterans, there are rising stars. The same Ilia Topuria previously went through the entire division and will soon fight Volkanovski for the belt. Another undefeated fighter in this category is Russian Movsar Evloev.
He recently defeated Arnold Allen and is now in the top 5. It will be very difficult for Sterling to compete with such rivals. It is far from certain that Aljamain will be able to defeat even Calvin Kattar, with whom he will fight at UFC 300.
In addition to the top fighters, there are many strong mid-level fighters, such as Bryce Mitchell, Arnold Allen, Giga Chikadze and the rising star of the division Diego Lopez. In a fight with each of them, Sterling will have huge problems.
2. Age 34
Petr Yan vs Aljamain Sterling: Remember the fight
It’s too early to count Sterling among the veterans, but he is already an older fighter. Only a few people manage to progress at the age of 34. Perhaps one of the few such exceptions is light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Sterling’s recent bantamweight title loss to Sean O’Malley showed that “Aljo” was past his peak. Too frequent performances, injuries and accumulated fatigue did not allow him to act in his usual style.
Sterling was not himself and no longer showed the same pressure as before. The loss to O’Malley can be taken as the starting point of the decline and regression of the former bantamweight champion.
It is also worth considering the psychological component. Such lesions do not disappear without a trace, especially at 34 years of age. If earlier Sterling believed in his success, then the first failure in several years destroyed his aura of invincibility.
It’s hard to believe that after this, Aljamain will quickly come to his senses and begin to show the same performances as at his peak.
3. Sterling has trouble standing up
The former bantamweight champion, even in his best years, was not considered an outstanding striker. With 23 victories in his professional mixed martial arts career, he won by knockout only 4 times.
Meanwhile, the featherweight division has always had its share of strong strikers. With such a weak technique, he has no chance against the guys from the top 5. Volkanovski and Topuria will calmly overwork Aljamain and knock him out closer to the middle of the fight.
A fight with Holloway could result in a knockout defeat for the former champion at the very beginning of the match. “Blessed One” maintains an incredibly fast pace, throwing 100 punches per round.
Yair Rodriguez and Josh Emmett, with their powerful high kick and right hook, will put out the light in Aljamain’s eyes with one punch. On foreign territory, Sterling will have fights with bigger guys, which means they will hit much harder.
4. No advantage over featherweights
In the bantamweight division, Sterling defeated his opponents due to his size advantage. In the offseason, the former champion’s weight was about 77 kg. He had to lose about 16 kg to meet the limit of his usual category.
His size advantage allowed him to take smaller opponents to the ground and simply lay low for the duration of the fight. But in the featherweight division he will not have this advantage.
And guys like Ilia Topuria, Josh Emmett and Alexander Volkanovski weigh 82 kg in the offseason. When looking at Sterling’s wrestling skills, there are better grapplers in the featherweight division like Brian Ortega, Bryce Mitchell and Movsar Evloev.
Aljamain doesn’t have the skill to bring these guys down to earth. The rest are simply physically stronger than the former champion. Therefore, Sterling’s usual tactic of taking a takedown and then going behind his back will not work in another category.
5. Wasn’t a dominant champion even at bantamweight
As paradoxical as it may sound, Sterling, who defended his belt three times, cannot be called the dominant champion of the bantamweight division. Firstly, the American received the title only due to coincidence.
He completely lost the first fight to Petr Yan in all aspects, and won only a split decision in the rematch. As part of his second title defense, Sterling faced Dillashaw.
In that fight, the belt holder pinned the challenger by finishing him off with a grand-and-pound in the second round. But even that victory cannot be called outstanding, since TJ suffered a shoulder injury at the very beginning of the meeting and, due to the damage, simply survived in the octagon.
In the next confrontation with Henry Cejudo, the champion almost lost his belt. Despite the huge advantage in size, Sterling had a very mediocre fight with SSS.
Cejudo, who had not fought for almost 3 years, provided incredible competition to Aljamain, who consistently fights once every 6 months. The judges saved Sterling from failure that evening – he won by split decision.
Looking at such fights, it cannot be said that Aljamain was a real hegemon of the bantamweight division. The American’s championship feels like luck. True, luck will definitely not accompany Sterling so often against stronger opponents in the featherweight division.
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