Las Vegas – Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling spoke on making his featherweight debut against Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 on Saturday night.
“Man it’s night and day. We were talking about the weight cut. I was like it’s almost laughable for me, it’s still not easy, but compared to what I was doing before for so many years this is almost like a cake walk,” Sterling told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
“I don’t want to underplay it, it’s still going to be a tough weight cut because I’m still super lean, I got like 15 pounds which is a lot nicer than having 25.”
Even with the move up in weight class it’s still to be seen if this means fans will get a better version of Sterling.
“We’re going to find out Saturday night. I really don’t know. I think the training’s been looking great. We’ve gotten a lot of good matchups in the training room, a lot of good feedback, I think all in all we’ve been doing some really good stuff,” he said.
“I’m proud of the work we put in, and just got to go out there and perform and I think if I do that the best version of myself shows up.”
Sterling (23-4) will face Kattar in his 145 debut. Kattar has missed nearly 17 months due to a knee injury he suffered in October 2022.
“Hopefully he’s healed up man. I don’t wish any injuries or anything like that for any of these athletes. It’s hard enough trying to win a fight in the UFC. Hopefully Calvin’s 100% coming into this with his knee injury. I’m going to do what I got to do. I’m not trying to maliciously attack his knees. I’m just going to use my grappling, use my kicks, use my punches, I’m fighting him everywhere and anywhere the fight goes,” he said.
Coming into the fight at 34-years-old Sterling is much closer to the end than the beginning of his career. He knows the end is coming.
“Honestly I think I could fight to 40 if I really wanted to the way I’m feeling. Will I do that? Hopefully not,” he said.
“I definitely think I’ve got little bit more in the tank now. We’ll see how this fight goes and then I can make an educated decision on how much longer I want to do this.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Aljamain Sterling above. He takes on Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 on Saturday night.
