Aljamain Sterling responds to the critics

At UFC 259 on Saturday night, Aljamain Sterling had the dubious distinction of becoming the first person in league history to win a title on a foul. Sterling did well early vs. then bantamweight champion Petr Yan, but in the fourth round was clearly fading and was behind on two judge’s scorecards and up on one. Sterling was on his knees and referee Mark Smith declared him down, when Yan inexplicably landed an illegal knee to the face. Smith tried to keep his voice down, but that’s hard with no audience, and the referee could be heard saying if Sterling couldn’t continue, Yan would be disqualified. Sterling was declared unfit to continue by a cageside doctor, and Yan was disqualified

“Funk Master” has suffered criticism from seemingly each and every MMA fan in Russia, and no small number of fans everywhere else. Further, John McCarthy, the Dean of MMA Referees criticized Smith’s performance. During a recent episode of his The Weekly Scraps podcast, Sterling responded to all, beginning with his Russian critics.

I do respect that you guys support your athletes, said Sterling. With that being said, you guys aren’t freaking doctors. Just because I got a CAT scan and I was cleared does not mean I wasn’t concussed.

They’ve been comparing to the Francis Ngannou vs. Overeem knockout, and Overeem got up faster than me. That’s ridiculous. Let’s pump the brakes, cool your tits, you guys aren’t doctors.

Sterling also took issue with McCarthy’s comments.

I can get what he is saying, but when should a fighter or an athlete and a team ever be disqualified? asked Sterling. If there are rules to disqualify, when do you ever enforce them? I would think a guy throwing a blatant intentional knee, intentional, he lines me up with intent to do damage, he lines me up to put me out. So if the defense is going to be, I don’t think Petr Yan knew, really? You don’t think he knew, what, the rules that he’s been training for for years, that he’s the world champion of, you don’t think he knew the rules that he can’t knee a downed opponent?

I’m not trying to go tit for tat with you, but when do you disqualify an athlete? I just really want to know, since you’re the golden standard that everyone should go by, what qualifies for a disqualification in ‘Big’ John McCarthy’s eyes, in his opinion, because I don’t know what else you need that needs to be more clear-cut and dry than that. Intentional, intent, damage, the fight. What else do you want?

And the fighter replied to other fighters in the division who found fault with his DQ win.

Shame on you guys, said Sterling. You guys ever see me quit or look for a way out where a guy’s putting on a half-ass rear-naked choke. … You guys are the freaking softies. I fought my ass off the entire time, and I was not going to quit in that fight. I was going to take my lickings or try to find a way to win like a man. There’s no quit button whenever I’m in there.

You guys are the actors, and it might be a reflection of your own spirits or whatever. Some of you guys are probably cheaters, anyway.

I got blasted. [UFC President] Dana [White] saw how I got blasted. His corner saw how I got blasted. Yan knows he blasted me.