Aljamain Sterling hasn’t shied away from the brutalities of a UFC weight cut.
As a former UFC bantamweight champion, Sterling has experienced his fair share of weight cuts having contested five title bouts in Dana White‘s promotion.
UFC bantamweight title bouts have a 135-pound weight limit, compared to the 136lb limit for non-title bouts.
Sterling has previously admitted his walk-around weight ranges from between 170lbs and 173lbs, meaning he had to cut around 35lbs (16kg) every time he fought for the title.
Now, having moved back up 10lbs to the flyweight division, ‘Funk Master’ has reflected on his time at spent as the 135lbs champion.
An MMA fan shared footage of Sterling this week during a weight cut to bantamweight, praising the UFC star’s excellent physique.
However, the 35-year-old New York native made sure to make his own personal views on the matter known.
“That s*** was not healthy,” he wrote on X in response to the fan.
Sterling was forced to move up back to his older featherweight division after constantly facing difficulties shredding the weight required to meet the 135lbs limit.
He won UFC gold for the first time following an illegal knee from Petr Yan at UFC 259 in March 2021, which prompted the Russian to be disqualified.
‘Funk Master’ then defended the belt in a rematch with Yan 13 months later before also defeating TJ Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo.
However, his title reign came to a bitter ending when he was knocked out in the first round at UFC 292 in August 2023 by Sean O’Malley, who has since dropped the belt to current champion Merab Dvalishvili.
MMA fans were quick to show their appreciation to Sterling for making the extreme weight cuts during his title reign.
One took to X and said: “Not an easy thing to do. Respect for that.”
Another added: “Damn, mad respect for what you guys go through.”
After his defeat to O’Malley, Sterling shocked fans when he revealed that he gained almost three stone in one week.
He was supporting his typical abs and a chiseled physique when he made the 135lbs limit 24 hours before fighting O’Malley at UFC 192.
After resting for a few days following his shock TKO defeat to ‘Suga’, Sterling hit the scales on to assess the damage.
He documented the post-fight weigh-in for his YouTube subscribers, lifted up his shirt to reveal that his abs were no longer visible.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to get that heavy, but as you can see the process had already begun,” Sterling said.
Sterling jumped on the scale and found out he weighed 175.5lbs, which was over 40lbs heavier than he was six days prior.
Renowned UFC commentator Joe Rogan has been a big advocate against weight cuts in the sport.
“No one should be cutting weight,” he said last year on his popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.
“What they should do is just find out what you f****** actually weigh and just stop this nonsense.
“It should be looked at the same way steroids are looked at.
“It should be looked at the same way all other kinds of cheating are looked at.
“It’s sanctioned cheating. You’re not really 155lbs! [They should also] give more options for weight classes.”
Weight cutting is an extremely controversial subject in the world of MMA with there being many notable cases of fighters putting their lives at risk in order to make the given weight of a contest.
Sterling bounced back from his defeat to O’Malley by claiming a unanimous decision win over Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 last April.
However, eight months later, ‘Funk Master’ lost a close unanimous decision defeat to Movsar Evloev at UFC 310 in what was his last Octagon appearance to date.
