Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I can’t believe fucking D’s on time today.
Darian Weeks (00:04):
Oh, I mean, right on time. Did you just hear you say, bam? We’re live As soon as I hit it.
Sevan Matossian (00:09):
Can’t even believe it. Can’t even believe it.
Darian Weeks (00:12):
And I’m not in a car.
Sevan Matossian (00:14):
Fuck. Nuts, nuts, nuts.
Caleb Beaver (00:17):
Let’s go.
Sevan Matossian (00:22):
Are you on a computer?
Justin Nunley (00:23):
I did. You know that birds can see earth’s magnetic field Now? You do.
Sevan Matossian (00:31):
That’s what Al Joe’s gonna do to fucking TJ tomorrow. Know that
Justin Nunley (00:34):
Birds can
Sevan Matossian (00:35):
See magnetic with that and then grab by his,
Darian Weeks (00:43):
It’s, It’s Saturday, not tomorrow. Today’s Wednesday.
Sevan Matossian (00:47):
Oh, and it’s not even Saturday, Sorry. October 20. It’s October 22nd. Either way, it’s gonna be 22nd fucking great. I’ve been watching so much Al Joe stuff and I’m just pumped on ’em.
Darian Weeks (00:57):
Yeah, no, I’m not on a computer. Um,
Sevan Matossian (01:00):
Baby steps, baby steps. You’re not in the car. Baby steps.
Darian Weeks (01:03):
That’s it. You know what I mean?
Sevan Matossian (01:04):
Baby steps. It’s um, it’s weird. It’s like, it’s, uh, oh shit. I, I should have a, a window open with my email on it. Al Joe. Only emails. Well, at least that’s, that’s where I’m at. I’m only in the email world. Uh, it’s, it’s cock week on Justin’s. Um,
Darian Weeks (01:23):
Yeah, I seen that one. The one with the fucking, uh, PVC pipe.
Sevan Matossian (01:28):
Yeah, that one’s good too. How about the, how about this one? It’s just,
Speaker 5 (01:31):
It’s the latest I 40 eastbound.
Sevan Matossian (01:33):
Well,
Justin Nunley (01:34):
That is not discrete delivery. And it looks like a hard missed clean up. Listen, did you know that Psycho silence of the Lambs and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre are all based off the same serial killer now You do for
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Sure. That’s the latest I 40 eastbound.
Sevan Matossian (01:50):
Well, it’s just DDoS that
Justin Nunley (01:52):
Is not discrete delivery.
Darian Weeks (01:53):
And I seen the freaking, uh, news coverage on that, and they were so confused. You could tell they didn’t wanna say anything about it. Oh, we don’t know what those are.
Sevan Matossian (02:02):
It was just, it was just a bus. It was just a bus full of DDoS, I swear.
Justin Nunley (02:10):
Relatable. Listen, Cindy, did you know that?
Sevan Matossian (02:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We could hear you, Alma, but we can’t see you.
Justin Nunley (02:18):
Okay. One second.
Sevan Matossian (02:19):
All right. I mean, it’s just straight cock week on non-lease thing. Look at this.
Darian Weeks (02:25):
It’s great.
Justin Nunley (02:27):
I thought that was gag video first. Turns out. It’s a pretty hard job. Listen, did you know that Dick Clark? Hey,
Sevan Matossian (02:33):
Do you even know what that is? That that person getting outta the sand there
Darian Weeks (02:36):
Even
Justin Nunley (02:42):
IAG video at turns out it’s a pretty hard
Sevan Matossian (02:44):
Job. He’s on a phone too. Listen,
Justin Nunley (02:45):
Did you know that Dick Clark?
Sevan Matossian (02:48):
Are you on a phone? Al Jaine?
Justin Nunley (02:49):
No. No.
Sevan Matossian (02:50):
Oh, this is one of the guys. This is, Do you know what that is? Sticking outta the sand right there.
Justin Nunley (02:58):
I thought that was gag video at first. Turns out it’s a pretty hard job.
Sevan Matossian (03:01):
If Justin comes on, we’ll ask him what that is. Created
Justin Nunley (03:04):
The American Music Awards after eight.
Aljamain Sterling (03:07):
No, I have no idea what that is. No idea what that is.
Sevan Matossian (03:11):
How about this? How about this one? We were looking at? This is just eastbound.
Justin Nunley (03:17):
Well, it looks like some that is not discrete delivery. And it looks like a hard missed cleanup. Listen, did you know that Cy. Silence of the Lambs and Takes
Aljamain Sterling (03:27):
Lines. Those are good ones.
Sevan Matossian (03:30):
Uh, Alma, uh, meet, uh, Mr. Dar weeks during weeks Meet Alma Stern. I don’t know if you guys know each other.
Aljamain Sterling (03:35):
What’s up, man? Nice to meet you, brother. How you doing?
Sevan Matossian (03:39):
Hey, um, the, uh, the fact that you took your microphone to do the show with, um, Ariel.
Aljamain Sterling (03:48):
Oh, and, uh, the, the, uh, at the Pi
Sevan Matossian (03:51):
<laugh>. Yeah. That was tight.
Aljamain Sterling (03:54):
Dang you. I I wanted it to sound good. You know, sometimes it could sound bad if you just use the laptop mic.
Sevan Matossian (03:59):
Yeah, totally. I respect you. Dian hasn’t figured that out yet. I
Aljamain Sterling (04:03):
Haven’t on small steps. I’m gonna get a mic too somewhere. I was, I was there, man. So I, I feel you, man. I look all kinds of crazy. I just finished training, so my hair is like all kinds of wild right now. Oh, you
Sevan Matossian (04:14):
Look like Beaker from the Muppets.
Aljamain Sterling (04:20):
You’re good. You’re good. She shit nap Be as hell right now. Goddamn.
Sevan Matossian (04:26):
Hey, congratulations.
Aljamain Sterling (04:28):
<laugh> on what?
Sevan Matossian (04:29):
Just, just the last, uh, two years of just, just the bullshit that you went through and, um, the maturity and different sides of you that you showed us. And, uh, you know, in the last like couple days right before you came on, I was just kind of cramming all your most recent interviews and there’s a whole new, I think a whole new sense of calmness and confidence to you that’s, uh, that’s like so evident that it’s, uh, that you kind of put that bullshit to rest.
Aljamain Sterling (05:02):
Uh, I, I personally, I think I’m still the same person. I think people are just looking at me differently now because Fair, because of that. But I’ve heard that multiple times. But I’m just like, well, I haven’t done anything different. So I, I don’t know. I mean, I guess that’s a cool thing to hear. I don’t
Sevan Matossian (05:17):
Know. May, you know, it’s even in the nuances that Al Jermaine even just like in the cadence that you talk, you’re just like, you just seem like you just got more swagger. But you know what? I’ll tell, I’ll meet, I’ll meet you easily halfway because, um, there was so much, um, uh, shit talking around your first fight with Yawn that it was hard not to get swept up in it. I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t talk no shit about you, but it was tough. But, but anyone who scratched the surface and did the research, you’ve had a neck problem since your earliest days of, uh, high school wrestling?
Aljamain Sterling (05:51):
No, college, College,
Sevan Matossian (05:51):
College wrestling. Yeah. So, so sorry. Like serious neck issues.
Aljamain Sterling (05:55):
Yeah, but I got through every single training camp, but it was not like, it was, it was easy. You know, you sometimes you gotta miss a couple workouts, um, you gotta get a cortisone shot, you gotta do a couple different things, PT and all types of stuff just to keep it from hindering you too much in the training camps. So yeah, it was something, it was, it was a long time coming for me to eventually get that done. It was either my, my goal was hopefully let’s win the belt and we can retire and then by the time then we’ll figure it out by then. But it caught up to me before then, so, uh, I had to get it fixed
Sevan Matossian (06:31):
If I had, if I had to rank Go ahead Darren. Sorry. Go ahead.
Darian Weeks (06:34):
I wanna applaud you for the flawless game plan. You came back after the first fight with yn. That was, it was amazing because, I mean, everyone knew you were getting, you were getting beat by y you know, that first match up, you know, and to come back and to, I mean, dominate like you did and everybody’s counting you out, you know what I mean? They saying the first fight was a fluke and you’d be able to press down on the pressure like that. That’s most impressed, you know, most impressed with that, You know what I mean?
Aljamain Sterling (07:03):
Nah, thank you. I I appreciate it. Yeah. I, um, I think people for Has
Sevan Matossian (07:07):
That pissed you off? Did he just said that by the way?
Aljamain Sterling (07:09):
No, no, no.
Sevan Matossian (07:10):
I I didn’t think you were losing that first fight.
Aljamain Sterling (07:12):
No. Was I, I knew I was on my way to losing that fight. Like I knew the first two rounds were close, even though that was still my worst day. So I’m just like, man, honestly, if I’m doing this decent on my worst day, I would like to fight this guy when I’m a hundred percent and we’ll see what’s what. So I kind of feel like he kind of got away with one because you could say vice versa. I got away with one because he hit me with the illegal need and then I got another chance. But I think he got away with one cuz I botched my, my morning rehydration process and gave him an opportunity to, to look better than what he actually is. I’m not saying the guy’s not good, but I just felt like my skillset was honestly what I did.
Aljamain Sterling (07:50):
The second fight should have been the first fight and it should have been over in the first round when I got the first takedown. But it is what it is, man. I, I feel like it was kind of a, a little bit of adversity and it gave me a challenge in my life. Something to kind of overcome and I feel like most people would’ve cracked under the pressure. And um, I think it just shows the, the type of mental fortitude that I have going into that cage. You know, I put in a ton of work and, uh, it’s unfortunate cuz you could do, you can have the best training camp and literally the day of the fight, if you’re not feeling well, guess what? All those eight, 10 weeks, it really doesn’t matter. And that’s what happened to be that day when, when we first fought. And I was just happy I had the opportunity to do it over, thankfully, because the guy is a bone head. And um, it gave me a chance to show the world that I really earned and belonged at the top of the mountain at 1 35.
Sevan Matossian (08:40):
Uh, and I know you call him a bone head, but let’s face it, you beat one of the best fighters in the world.
Aljamain Sterling (08:45):
Oh yeah. Trust me. Trust me. I know how good he’s, Yeah, but I just still, I felt like, yeah,
Sevan Matossian (08:50):
He’s still a dickhead.
Aljamain Sterling (08:52):
Yeah. But I feel like if I do what I do in the room, man, uh, you, you have to see it to understand what it, what it is. There’s so many different guys I’ve trained with in different rooms and obviously training is training the fights to fight. It’s always different when the, uh, the lights are shine and bright on you and whether or not you could rise to the occasion. But I, I truly do feel if I even show up half of what I do in the training room, um, I literally just had some guy, I don’t wanna get this guy in trouble, but he saw me training, um, when I was at the pi a coup, uh, last week. And he goes, You only show 40% of what you could do. It was like the, when I first, cuz he is, he’s a Russian guy.
Aljamain Sterling (09:27):
He was like, I saw, he was like, I I, I saw the first fight, I just thought the guy was just better. I didn’t think you’re wrestling was that good. And he is like, now I’m seeing you train. And I’m like, you’re actually probably the best guy in this, in this division, just based on what he was able to see me do. I was like, Yeah man. Like it is what it is. Like obviously you don’t go crazy in a fight because you don’t wanna take too many risks, but at the same time you gotta, you, you show glimpses of what you’re capable of doing. And um, thankfully I was able to show enough that was enough for me to get my hand raised.
Sevan Matossian (09:59):
Um, the, the pressure you put, was there more pressure you put on him in the first fight than the second fight? Did you slow the second fight down? Not that it was like tremendously slower, but the first fight seemed like mighty mouse pressure.
Aljamain Sterling (10:08):
Yeah. So, and if I could do that first fight over, it would’ve been a, it would’ve been more like the second fight. Like yeah, despite me not feeling good or whatever, you know, um, feeling like I’m about to throw up in the back room, whatever, first time ever feeling like that, not eating the right way. Okay, cool. But if I fought him more calculated because look, the mindset was okay, I feel like shit, if I could just scum this guy for the first 15 minutes and just gas pedal him, all I have to do is stall my ass off for 10 minutes and I’m a world champion. That’s, that’s the way I rationalized it in my head. But then in hindsight I’m like, man, I could have been just touching him up and moving and conserving my energy for a takedown and just laid on him.
Aljamain Sterling (10:51):
And yeah, it might not have been as exciting with all the drama, but I think I could have gotten away with it. Even not feeling the way, not feeling as good as I normally feel on fight day. You know, there’s never been a time I move that slow with my hands all the way down. Uh, I shoot a take down and I can’t even keep my feet underneath me. It, you know, that was, so going into the second fight, I felt like I had to play the matador a little bit more, um, based on however he came out. And it’s just having multiple game plans. So I was either gonna be offensive again depending on how he wanted to start, but he came out aggressive. I was like, Oh, this guy thinks the chicken doesn’t wanna, doesn’t wanna fight. So I was like, okay, let’s play this point fighting game because he was, he’s going for the killer.
Aljamain Sterling (11:34):
I’m playing the matador. I’m point fighting and waiting for a golden opportunity to take him down. Um, first round, counted the strikes. I knew I outs struck him the first round I knew I landed the hardest strike of the first round, which was the, the stepping elbow to the top of his head that stumbles him backwards. Uh, so I, I don’t know man. When I’m in there I’m thinking, you know, I’m not just in there fighting on autopilot. Like it’s still, there’s a, you, your senses are heightened cuz there’s a fist fight. But at the same time you, you’re kind of troubleshooting what’s going on and you beat you are able to kind of, um, analyze and assess the situation and make adjustments on the fly.
Sevan Matossian (12:09):
Um, you added running into your training and, and what, what’s sprints and what was, when I saw that, I was like, wow, I I can’t believe that’s new for him.
Aljamain Sterling (12:19):
Yeah.
Darian Weeks (12:19):
<laugh>, you never, never used to have sprints in your training, huh?
Aljamain Sterling (12:24):
Nah, I mean the most I would do is like these hill sprints and we’d do that for like five minutes and um, it’s just like you sprint all the way up. You’re coming down is like the way, like your recovery, then you sprint back up and you do that for a five minute round. And we would do that for three to five rounds. But then I kind of stopped doing it. I just got on the Aerodyne bike cause I felt like it was the same thing and not putting all the stress and pressure on my knees. So now hitting the pavement, running a couple sprints, I pulled my ham and uh, like a day after this, two days after this video. And from there I was kind of like, I think it was actually this video. Yeah. I pulled my ham and I was like, you know what, we’re gonna have to dial it back a little bit. So now I’m just doing long distance. I, I literally don’t run it all. So it’s just a good addition I guess. And, uh, I think it’s been paying off dividends. I I don’t really know. You won’t really know until you get into the fight. So
Sevan Matossian (13:17):
I mean, you caught the guys on the eight, you caught the guys on the 800, the 600 and the four hundreds that I watched you run, you were always running in the, um, inside lane. So you were started further back than them. Was that set up for the camera or you just faster than all those dudes?
Aljamain Sterling (13:32):
Um, Oh, the one you’re talking about? Yeah. I, it was just raining that day, so there was a lot of puddles. So we were trying to space it out and then when we did it the first time and we all started on the one yard line, not the one, like the one the inside mark.
Sevan Matossian (13:45):
Yeah, yeah. So
Aljamain Sterling (13:47):
When you do it, there’s a, there’s a certain way you’re supposed to do it. You can’t just start from one spot and then yeah, you gotta end. There’s like a, there’s like a actual measurement that goes around and I was like, oh yeah, I ran track. How could I actually forget
Sevan Matossian (13:59):
The guy? Oh, you did run track. No wonder. Okay, so you are faster than all those guys.
Aljamain Sterling (14:04):
Uh, I mean I got a little Jamaican Bob sl me, <laugh> <laugh>. But uh, I mean, I don’t know if I’m, I don’t know if I’m that fast. I think that I was just able to keep the pace. These guys aren’t in training camp, you know, so I would hope that I’m winning these, these, uh, these runs. I hope.
Sevan Matossian (14:20):
Um, UFC ban and weight champion and number seven, uh, best pound for pound. I mean you can, you can say just fighter on the planet, right? I mean the, the guy who’s the heavyweight champion in the UFC is theoretically just like the toughest dude alive, right? Like no one can beat him up. I mean, theoretically.
Aljamain Sterling (14:40):
Theoretically, yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t mess with Anno.
Sevan Matossian (14:43):
<laugh>. Yeah, right.
Aljamain Sterling (14:44):
Guy is huge.
Darian Weeks (14:45):
We’ll see what happens when John Jones gets in there. We, that’s, that’s when we really know, you
Aljamain Sterling (14:50):
Know, I mean I know man that’s, I’m torn between that cuz it, I like, I like Francis a lot and, but I started MMA because of John Jones going to school with him. But I, I would like to think that I’m a lot closer with Francis than I am with John over the years. Um, John is a very interesting cat. Like, I, I don’t know, I I like John, don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of his forever be a fan of his, but um, sometimes he just, I don’t know. He, he’s just John, I just, I’ll leave it at that.
Darian Weeks (15:17):
Yeah, he’s got his, he’s got, he’s got his own way in the personal personality wise. But I mean fight IQ wise, I mean they don’t match up, you know what I’m saying? Like
Aljamain Sterling (15:28):
I agree. That’s what, that’s what’s gonna make you so interesting cuz it’s like his fight IQ versus the size of Iana. But we know the, the great equalizer is always that knockout power.
Sevan Matossian (15:39):
Justin, did you just, I saw you take your headphones off for a second, Justin, did you hear a semi full of dildos crash in front of your house or
Justin Nunley (15:45):
Dude, man, that was a lot of dicks.
Sevan Matossian (15:47):
That was a lot of deals.
Justin Nunley (15:49):
That was a ton of a speaking of, um, are you married?
Aljamain Sterling (15:52):
You talking to me?
Justin Nunley (15:53):
Yeah.
Aljamain Sterling (15:54):
No, not married engaged.
Justin Nunley (15:56):
Heidi, he’s not married. He’s engaged. There’s still a chance.
Sevan Matossian (15:59):
Oh, <laugh>. Oh yeah, yeah.
Aljamain Sterling (16:03):
Oh, hey there. <laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (16:05):
Oh shit. She says is he married? Who gives a fuck about fight talk. All right, fair enough. Um, um, you had a vertebrae, you have an artificial vertebrae?
Aljamain Sterling (16:19):
Yeah. Disc,
Justin Nunley (16:21):
Not a disc. Oh, disk. Okay.
Aljamain Sterling (16:23):
Is it the same thing? Disc?
Sevan Matossian (16:24):
No, the verta, I
Justin Nunley (16:26):
The disc goes in between the two. Vertebraes provides a cushion. Yeah,
Aljamain Sterling (16:30):
A hundred percent. Right. And I took anatomy a AP one and two and I should know this as well.
Sevan Matossian (16:35):
Hey, so it’s, it’s not, it’s, it is just a disc. It’s not a vertebrae.
Aljamain Sterling (16:39):
It’s not the vertebrae, it’s the disc in between that helps it move like the sliding, which would be
Justin Nunley (16:44):
The cushion, Which part of your neck? Is it The neck?
Aljamain Sterling (16:47):
Yeah, C 67.
Justin Nunley (16:48):
Me too. I’ve got a steel plate in mine. They put a cadaver bone in between my two vertebraes. So they put like one of those artificial disc in your
Aljamain Sterling (16:56):
Yeah. Yeah. So what do you have a fusion
Justin Nunley (16:57):
Or? Yeah, they, they just fused it. They asked me, it’s like, ah, it is probably gonna come back out, you know, with the artificial, I was like, just making permanent.
Aljamain Sterling (17:07):
Yeah, see I, that was one of the options, but once you start talking about like, depending on how much longer you’re gonna do, this is gonna get worse from the upper level and the bottom level. I’m like, dude, I’ll just take my chances with the fu with the,
Justin Nunley (17:19):
Uh, So when, when yours went out, when yours went out, did you have like, did you have like numbness and Yeah. Did you have any numb? So I still, I still can’t feel half my hand.
Aljamain Sterling (17:29):
Yeah, I got like a bunch of pitches from Oh, this, this one’s you,
Sevan Matossian (17:34):
That one’s you nu only?
Justin Nunley (17:36):
No.
Sevan Matossian (17:37):
Oh no, I <laugh>. That’s just my,
Justin Nunley (17:40):
I’ll send, I’ll send mine to the, uh, to the group chat and he, he can, we can compare. Hey,
Sevan Matossian (17:44):
So I swear it’s the Dpic.
Justin Nunley (17:46):
I’m not, I won’t send the dpic.
Sevan Matossian (17:49):
I’m sending the date peak now. Uh, alga alga mean. Um, uh, when did you have that done?
Aljamain Sterling (17:56):
Uh, last year, April.
Sevan Matossian (17:58):
So, so after the fight?
Aljamain Sterling (17:59):
Yeah, so I tried to opt for other remedies, um, stem cells and all this other stuff and a bunch of different doctors said, it’s honestly to the point where even if you do the stem cells, it’s only gonna do so much. I’m like, well, I don’t wanna waste time and then push back my return even longer. I was already out for a year with my, my wrist surgery and, um, I didn’t want, I’m, I’m young in terms of fight years. So I’m just like, I already wasted a whole year on the sidelines. I fought once, um, after I fought Pedro Munos and I was out for a year, then I fought San Hagen. Then I was, I fought, um, Pio Young. I was out again for another year. So I’m just like, you know what, let’s not waste any more time. They said I would be back in three months, but I was back.
Aljamain Sterling (18:45):
But I wasn’t fully recovered in terms of like the neurological, um, responses with the body. So I would train and I would fatigue so quickly and uh, I thought I was gonna be able to fight in Abu Dhabi last year, but it didn’t work out. I was like, Dude, unless you guys want me to go fight the exact same, I’ll show up and just collect the paycheck. But um, unfortunately they listen to the doctors and they advise ’em like, listen, this is not safe for me to fight at this point in my, um, recovery. So they gave him more time to recover and thankfully they, they did because it was night and day from October to um, March and in April when we actually fought.
Sevan Matossian (19:26):
I like it the way how you always say that guy’s name Jann’s, first name Por por
Aljamain Sterling (19:32):
Pta,
Sevan Matossian (19:33):
Pta, pta. It’s uh, PTA y. So you fought that dude, that dude probably did the most illegal thing you can do in ufc. Yeah. Need someone in the head. I’m thinking, I was thinking, would you rather fight someone who’s all juiced up and on all the drugs or would you rather get, let them knee you in the head and I’m thinking, fuck someone who’s all juiced up as long as they still have to make weight. It is. How can there be any, I don’t understand how anyone could come down on you. There’s no, I was trying to think what it’s equivalent to in cheating in other sports. Like what is it, what like the basketball doesn’t have an equivalent to needing someone in that
Aljamain Sterling (20:07):
Nah, what people say is, I seen people, people get up from all the time. I’m
Sevan Matossian (20:11):
Like, doesn’t matter.
Aljamain Sterling (20:13):
It’s, it is not even,
Sevan Matossian (20:13):
I seen reps make bad calls when someone steps outta bounds, it doesn’t make it right.
Aljamain Sterling (20:17):
Yeah. My, my whole thing was these guys had to compare me to one. They either see the knee or two, the knee is nowhere near the same impact. And I’m like, I didn’t see the shot coming. My head was stuffed. Uh, he thought it was legal in his mind, so he didn’t throw it soft. He threw it intentionally to, to try to knock me out. Oh yeah, I got hit. I, I didn’t know what I got hit with. I I, I was so rocked and so exhausted at the same time. I was like, dude, I don’t even know where I’m at right now.
Justin Nunley (20:51):
So the first part of that clip is, is what y’all refer to as stuff in the head?
Aljamain Sterling (20:56):
Yeah, <laugh>. So I’m fighting his hands and I’m exhausted at this point. This is round four. I’m like, okay, I gotta get up safely as I’m trying to do this, I’m waiting for him to back up or try to punch me and if once he throws punches, I know I can stand up and he just levels me. He just loves me with the shot and hey,
Sevan Matossian (21:15):
Does that give you ptsd? Like now when you’re in fights, do are you gonna be thinking about that? Like fuck,
Aljamain Sterling (21:20):
All the time. All the time? Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (21:22):
I bet. I bet.
Darian Weeks (21:23):
What’s super, what’s super crazy is in one champion they allow knee to the head. That’s what Deme Johnson got finished with.
Aljamain Sterling (21:29):
And after he was talking shit about it, really he was, he said, You can’t stall the fight. I’m like, there’s a difference between stalling the fight and getting up intelligently. Two completely different things. If I’m stalling the fight, I’m just laying on the knee not trying to react and I’m just hanging out there. I’m not doing that. I’m trying to get up, I can’t see where I’m going, so why would I just stand up? That’s the dumbest thing you could do. Shows no fight iq. I’m like, yeah, I was exhausted but I wasn’t that stupid. Um, you
Sevan Matossian (21:54):
Can accuse him of stalling the fight too. He was obviously waiting for something.
Aljamain Sterling (21:58):
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. So it was like, well if you’re trying to need me in the head, I know you’re trying to need me in the head, I’m not gonna get up so you can just blast me. So I’m relaxing like, okay, catch a couple deep breaths and then as soon as you get up, let’s try to gas puddle him some more. And then Mighty Mouse gets in that same situation and the difference is he tries to get up right away and gets clapped and put to sleep. And I’m like, that’s what I’m talking about. That’s, that’s, and I, I like Mighty Mouse, huge fan of Mighty Mouse. But that’s like exactly why you don’t get up that way. But if I’m in one ffc, I know I gotta be a little bit more strategical in how I get up to my feet. So maybe I roll to my back and pull guard or maybe I look for a single leg, but I’m not gonna hang out there where I could get need in the head because it’s fair game.
Aljamain Sterling (22:44):
So you adjust and you fight towards the rule set. So for him to say that I thought that was the dumbest thing. And for anyone to say you can act, The guy threw a, a fight ending me intentionally. His nickname was No Mercy. He’s trying to take me out. If you try to say connect all the dots, I don’t care what you wanna say, he threw a malicious me and at the end of the day you, you’re mad because I didn’t get up and and act tough. I’m like, what? I wasn’t even given the opportunity to do that. I wanted my five minutes. The doctor took that away from me. Thank God they took it outta my hands because us fighters, we don’t know any better. We just keep going. Yeah, I’m tough. I’m cool. Yeah, I fought through that. Yeah. I’m Anthony Smith. No, you, you’re actually not smart at all for doing that. You’re
Darian Weeks (23:26):
Like, this is what I was telling someone. I was telling someone if I was in your same predicament, you know, and, and, and not saying you did this at all, you know what I mean? Like the knee obviously like you’re telling us it, it really rocked you. But I, I told myself like, you’re fighting the champion and he does an illegal blow like Anthony Smith with John Jones. I’m taking that illegal blow and taking the w because you’re, no matter what, you’re gonna re-fit that champion. That’s what they’re gonna want. And to build a game plan up after somebody you already fought. Okay, yeah, we can fight a second time. Cuz now look, now I know how you fight now I know how you feeling there now I know the speed that you fight at. Yeah, I’m gonna build that same mentality up. I’m gonna come back in and now I’m gonna win the belt like you did the second time and now I am champion. You know what I mean? So I I don’t see anything wrong with it. They, they do a cheating illegal move. I’m, I have an opportunity to not only get the
Sevan Matossian (24:20):
Yeah on
Justin Nunley (24:22):
Did the rapture happen?
Darian Weeks (24:25):
I’m I’m back
Aljamain Sterling (24:26):
<laugh>.
Justin Nunley (24:27):
I thought the rap sure happened
Darian Weeks (24:28):
But you provide, you provide, you’re providing for your family in this sport. You know what I’m saying? Like winning the belt is not just oh I, I can say I’m a champion. You are, you are getting your career, you know, put
Sevan Matossian (24:40):
Dude, in hindsight it played out perfect. You’re right Dar and in hindsight it paid that perfect. He got, he got preorder on back and smoked him and
Darian Weeks (24:47):
Smoked him
Sevan Matossian (24:48):
And the discussion.
Aljamain Sterling (24:49):
Yeah. Honestly, if even if I had lost that fight, the rematch, I just told myself, as long as you have a respectable performance, I really don’t give a shit. And when I was in the back room warming up, I told the guys, cuz even my own team was like questioning what like the things I was telling him. Like, I’m like Guys, if there was ever a time I wanted to win, it’s right now. And if you think I’m gonna lie to you so that I feel comfortable so that you lie to me in training, that doesn’t do me no favors. I need to be as brutally honest as I can so that we can make the proper game plan to come up and the proper training situations so that well, well prepared for this rema. You know? So for me, I was like, as long as I go out there and get the, get a have a good performance, I’m happy win lose.
Aljamain Sterling (25:35):
I always take away winning and losing. I’m like, if I have a good performance, good things happen. If not, the guy was just better that day and that makes me at least able to sleep at night. So that’s, that’s the mentality going into that fight. And thankfully selfish are better with the win, you know, So, um, definitely can’t say that sucks. That’s that’s definitely, And he’s been quiet since that fight, you know, hasn’t really <laugh>, he hasn’t really been saying much, you know, after all the 13 months of talking and talking shit and making these funny memes and I’m like, yeah, I, I got a sense of humor, I could laugh at myself, but that’s, uh,
Sevan Matossian (26:08):
It’s uh, is he gonna have a short career because of all he has to take a lot of abuse to get inside. Right. A little guy like that. Is he, does he have a tough career ahead of him? That face gonna get punched a lot?
Aljamain Sterling (26:18):
Uh, I mean to be honest, he doesn’t take a ton of damage. Um, I would say my fight, he took a lot in the first round. I mean with the two knees, the two flying knees I landed. And that’s really, I mean that was really the other shots. I mean those accumulation shots, but it’s not like heavy punches like when he was fighting Jose Aldo, but overall he doesn’t take a ton of damage, you know, so for him it’s good. I think this fight with OAL is gonna be very interesting cuz OAL can can crack, he can move in. It’s only three rounds. So if Jan decides to start slow or if he gets reckless and comes out super aggressive like he did against me in the first round, it could backfire on him against a guy who’s got really good counters, strikes and really good footwork. So I’m very interested in this one cuz I think it’s a good stylist match for both guys. One not being tested, one, we don’t know who, how tough he really is. He fought a one rink guy and got knocked out in the first round and then you got the other guy who might have a tough time with guys that just have good footwork. So it’s gonna be a very interesting fight for sure.
Sevan Matossian (27:17):
He’s just gonna try to close the distance and take him to the ground now. Oh, okay. Let me get two questions. What about taking ’em to the ground right away, but what about what Cheeto did to, uh, O’Malley? Can y just be like, sorry, Yeah. Just cho him down right away?
Aljamain Sterling (27:29):
I think so. I can’t see why not. Yeah, I think he’s gonna be physically way stronger than y I mean, O’Malley and, uh, I, I always say if I photo O’Malley, the hard part would be getting inside. But once I get inside, I get my hands on that guy. I literally think I get a body lock and I’ll fold his spine in half, like a freaking lawn chair. Like I really do think that like once I put these blades on him, I’m, he’s gonna be like, like he’s never felt anything like that before. So yeah, um, tall, skinny, he’s got good range, but you gotta give up something. Like you can’t have all the gifts in the world. The same thing. Like for me, I’m not the biggest puncher, but I could kick like a fucking mule and I can wrestle my ass off, you know? But I don’t have every single check mark as perfect, you know? So you just gotta find the chins in the armor and see where you can capitalize. And I think for Jan, the smart idea would be chop down legs and attack the body.
Sevan Matossian (28:22):
Are you enjoying your podcast?
Aljamain Sterling (28:24):
I do sometimes. It’s tough though. During the fight camp, I, I won’t lie, it’s uh, it can be a little mentally exhausting, especially when you’re doing two workouts a day that are very, very taxing on the body.
Sevan Matossian (28:34):
Like, it feels like work or something.
Aljamain Sterling (28:35):
It feels like once, yeah, once it’s, once it starts to feel like work, you don’t really want to do it. I did this, the podcast cause I enjoyed it, you know?
Sevan Matossian (28:43):
Yeah. Um, do you do your shows live?
Aljamain Sterling (28:46):
No, I’ve done live maybe three times.
Sevan Matossian (28:51):
From from from your own channel?
Aljamain Sterling (28:52):
From my own channel, Yeah.
Justin Nunley (28:53):
Yeah, man, I’m, hey, I’m digging them shorts right there, man. I’m from, Hey, I live down here in Florida. We are like the J capital of the world <laugh>. Like, if you don’t own several pair jts, you ain’t, you ain’t living life. Right?
Aljamain Sterling (29:06):
People make fun of my jerks.
Sevan Matossian (29:07):
Just like all the sleeveless hoodies he owns,
Justin Nunley (29:10):
Dog. Hey <laugh>, I like to party
Aljamain Sterling (29:14):
Monster
Justin Nunley (29:16):
<laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (29:17):
Uh, what’s the deal with uh, uh, uh, Mira Mara? Mara?
Aljamain Sterling (29:23):
Mara?
Sevan Matossian (29:23):
Yep. Mara. Um, how is that, how is, how does that play out? Um, when you as one and two, like, I, I know you say you, you look at the camera after the UFC fights and you’re like, fuck you were teammates, all y’all eat at Dick, we ain’t fighting. But at some point he’s gotta be like, I mean, does he go up? Does he, does do you go up? Does he go down? How do you solve that? Um, I mean at some point he’s gonna wanna make more money, right?
Aljamain Sterling (29:48):
Yeah, of course. And I understand that too. And we’ve talked about it and I’m like, Dude, I know you wanna become a world champion or at least have an opportunity to fight for a belt. That’s why we got into this. You know, make a ton of money, make history.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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