Outside Source
Aljamain Sterling relied on his striking for much of the UFC Shanghai co-headliner. | Getty/UFC
It may not have looked like it, but Aljamain Sterling was in survival mode down that stretch at UFC Shanghai.
The former bantamweight champion captured a unanimous decision triumph over Brian Ortega, sweeping the scorecards with a trio of 50-45 tallies in Saturday’s co-main event at Shanghai Indoor Stadium in Shanghai, China. Sterling spent a significant amount of time circling in the final stanza, so much so that he was warned for timidity. “The Funkmaster” was eventually able to ground his opponent and ride out the frame.
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Sterling revealed why he adopted that approach during the post-fight show.
“That last elbow I landed in Round 4, I really couldn’t even keep my arm up to defend myself. When he came after me, I was like this is like a living nightmare right now,” Sterling said.
“Because I can’t even do anything other than circle, and hopefully he makes a mistake, which he did and allowed me to take his back and get him down.”
The bout was shifted to a 153-pound catchweight after Ortega missed weight badly on Friday, but Sterling knew that his adversary could still be dangerous in a longer fight.
“I knew there was only one reason he wanted it to be five rounds and that was to get me in the later rounds because I’ve shown in the past to fade a little bit,” Sterling said. “But I was also cutting a tremendous amount of weight getting down to [135 pounds]. I still slowed down a bit but I had some stuff coming into this and thankfully, God was on my side and I was able to get the job done despite all the circumstances coming into this fight.”
Sterling Happy to Showcase Striking at UFC Shanghai
Overall, Sterling was pleased that he got to showcase the less appreciated aspect of his skill set. The 36-year-old Serra-Longo Fight Team member held a 124-to-55 edge in significant strikes landed and didn’t secure his first takedown of the bout until the fourth round.
“I was happy I got to show off my striking,” Sterling said. “Guys think I can’t box, they think I can’t kick. They think my striking is complete [crap]. I fight unorthodox because I like to take as little damage as possible. These guys come into the fights, they want to actually get into a back and forth fight.
“I’m here to win. I’m here to dominate. I’m here to make it look easy and if that makes you think I can’t strike, then step in there with me and see what happens.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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