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Aljamain Sterling explains beef with UFC 314 headliner Diego Lopes and his manager

LaPhezz March 21, 2025
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UFC 310: Evloev v Sterling
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Aljamain Sterling is happy to set the record straight when it comes to his beef with UFC 314 headliner, and upcoming featherweight title challenger Diego Lopes.

Lopes is set to face Alexander Volkanovski for the vacant UFC featherweight title in the main event of the promotion’s April 12 pay-per-view card in Miami. Sterling, a former bantamweight champ who moved up to the 145-pound division, respects everything Lopes has done, but stands by his opinion that Sterling’s most recent opponent Movsar Evloev was the more deserving challenger.

“I was surprised because I thought the guy who beat [Lopes at UFC 288] should have gotten the next shot, especially because he fought twice that year,” Sterling told MMA Fighting while previewing his brother Kelvin’s fight this Saturday at LFA 204. “[Evloev] fought twice in 2024, he beat a former champion, close fight, but he still beat a former champion. Diego had a great fight against Brian Ortega, but I don’t know. I don’t make the rules.

“Obviously, he’s got a more fan-friendly style, so I think that’s probably what it was, and of course he stepped up on short notice, so I give Diego his respect in that regards. No fighter in their right mind is going to turn down a title shot because they think someone else deserves it, and he might not be the most deserving, but he’s also very entertaining, and he’s cut his teeth into this game in a really short amount of time. So it’s going to be a fun fight no matter what. I lean towards Volk winning that fight unless Diego can catch him early.”

That said, Sterling still favors different matchmaking than what the UFC ultimately decided.

“Ideally, I thought it should have been Volkanovski vs. Movsar, and myself, maybe, against Lopes, or Lopes vs. Yair Rodriguez, or something like that just to keep the division moving,” Sterling said. “Because when you get a guy who, I don’t wanna say cut the line, but you get everyone kind of knocking out other contenders, and then you don’t have anyone with a viable win streak. That’s my thought process on the whole thing.

“By the way, it’s going to be a great title fight. I’ll be tuned in, hopefully I can get tickets to get down there. I would like to watch, may the best man win, and [his manager] Jason House can suck it.”

Sterling brings up Lopes’ manager following a slew of back-and-forth tweets between himself, Lopes, and House where “Funkmaster” shared that same opinion about Evloev being more deserving.

Several weeks later, Sterling still doesn’t understand why things got so out of hand, but sometimes the fight game can be that way.

“Someone asked me who I think was most deserving and I said Movsar,” Sterling explained. “But then I also said Diego’s not wrong for taking the title fight. They offered it to him, you take it. You take that and you run. That’s a golden ticket to change your life: Great eyeballs, you get an opportunity to get championship pay-per-view points, and all of this other great stuff that comes with the notoriety of becoming a champ.

“So I don’t know how they misread the tweet as me being bitter, or distasteful or whatever, but then they started going back-and-forth and I’m like, ‘Jason, you are one of the house guys in the company and you do a lot of shady stuff that a lot of people talk about just behind closed doors,’ and I’m not trying to air out anybody’s dirty laundry, but I’m like, ‘Yo, if you want to go there, we can go there like, but don’t try to get me blackballed from the events because you don’t like the things that I’m saying that are true. But I guess he might have thought I was threatening him.”

No matter how it was perceived, Sterling isn’t trying to engage in an actual fight with House or anybody else’s representation much less cause problems outside the octagon when there’s no money involved.

“I don’t get paid to fight managers,” Sterling said. “I don’t get paid to fight guys outside of the octagon. So there’s nothing there, and I even told Diego, like, I’ve been very cordial with him. So, I mean, it is what it is. If they got something to say, we’ll see you in person and we’ll talk about it like men and go from there.”

On Saturday, Sterling is set to watch his brother Kelvin compete but he is also ready to get back in the octagon himself. With Ilia Topuria vacating the featherweight belt in lieu of a lightweight move, Sterling believes the divisional door is wide open.

After a fun, and incredibly close fight with Evloev, Sterling believes he can hang with the best featherweights in the world, and he’s hopeful his next fight reflects that.

“I’m just excited for the future,” Sterling said. “I’m still waiting for an opponent, still waiting for a name. Hopefully someone that excites me, fighting the up and comers that no one knows at this point in my career doesn’t really make a ton of sense. It doesn’t get me excited to get out of bed, obviously it’s just a paycheck.

“But I’m looking for the fights that get you nervous, the fights that get you excited, the ones that you’re worried about that you get in there, you’re like, ‘I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I’m gonna give it my best.’ That’s what I’ve prided myself on. I want to fight another highly ranked guy, and see if I’m still that guy at this division.”



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