Undisputed UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling Is Fighting For A Clean Sport

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

– Winston Churchill

In Aljamain Sterling’s senior year in high school, he fell short of qualifying for the state tournament when he placed second to a wrestler he’d beat twice prior. When the New Yorker made it to the NCAA twice, he placed 4th and 6th. Even in his UFC title win, the world refused to give him his flowers. However, on October 22nd, “The Funk Master” will receive it all by becoming not merely a state or UFC champion but the greatest Bantamweight of all time.

Not only will Sterling be defending his title in my beloved hometown of Abu Dhabi, but most importantly, he will be fighting for a clean sport.

Rewind: In January 2019, TJ Dillashaw failed a drug test issued by the New York State Athletic Commission for recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO).

Three years prior to Dillashaw’s positive test, accusations were made by his former teammate and foe, Cody Gardbrant, that Dillashaw had been using performance-enhancing drugs for years.

When recalling the incident, Gardbrandt said: “TJ came to train with us at Team Alpha Male straight from college. He was the first one to tell us how they work. The guy has been on that stuff since his college wrestling days.” The world heard Gardbrant loud and clear. However, no measures were taken until the failed test.

Currently, we are in charted waters – if you’ve read the World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA) guidelines and testing protocols, you know for a fact that there are countless loopholes to work around the system. That said, the world is based on poetic justice: what goes around, comes back around.

This fight is far more potent than a UFC title fight; it embodies what all athletes should be against what they should never be. 

Aljamain Sterling is leaving a blueprint for every young athlete who goes through adversity from an early stage to not be demoralized or fall into what the world wants to label you. He took the route that required the most resistance without taking shortcuts, and he’s living proof that it works. On the other hand, TJ Dillashaw’s name could never be mentioned without three letters, PEDs.

So, in all actuality, the reigning champion understands the uneven situation he’s in, but he’s up for the test, literally.

Having a rival in combat sports generates attention, emotion, and, most importantly, money. Russia’s Petr Yan will forever be connected to Sterling’s name. However, many might not know this, but Petr Yan has also been linked to performance-enhancing drugs in the past.

A Russian media outlet (RT Sport) published an interview in 2018 with Petr Yan where they questioned why many Russian MMA fighters accused him of being on performance-enhancing drugs. Yan defended himself by stating that he had never failed a test. Why would the most significant Russian sports media outlet have such claims since the start of Yan’s UFC run? 

Correspondingly, prior to entering the UFC, Yan had two great fights with Magomed Magomedov, where he lost the first bout – Twelve months after their first fight, Yan avenged his loss by outpointing Magomedov. Here’s what Magomedov said after the second fight: “I’m not sure what happened. In the first fight, he wasn’t strong at all. He didn’t feel dangerous to me and my skills, but a year later, he became the strongest guy I have ever fought. It was like a different fighter. It was strange”. 

There is no proof that Yan used performance-enhancing drugs, and we’re certainly not accusing him. That said, usually, when there’s smoke, there’s fire. Still, nothing was stopping Aljamain Sterling from claiming his fate. 

It’s how the world operates – when devotion meets relentlessness, the position for prominence becomes preordained. Aljamain Sterling continues to author his legacy for the world to witness, and he looks to demonstrate once more that pursuit with pure intent forever triumphs in life.