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It seems that whatever beef Aljamain Sterling and Dana White had is now over.
On Saturday night, 'The Funk Master' returned to the cage at UFC 300. The fight was an extremely important one for the former champion, as it was his first up at featherweight. For his first 145-pound test, he faced longtime contender Calvin Kattar.
In case there were any questions on whether Sterling could hang at featherweight, they've now been answered. He largely dominated the action on Saturday, throwing the Bostonian around en route to a unanimous decision victory.
In the past, White has been quite critical of Sterling. However, after UFC 300, the promoter had nothing but praise for the former bantamweight champion. At the post-fight press conference, White stated that Sterling made Kattar look slow, and spoke positively of his featherweight debut.
On The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Sterling responded to White's comments and thanked the promoter for having his back, stating:
"I thought that was, for once, really nice of him haha. I was like, did I have to lose the belt for people to cut me a little slack? I'm not asking for much... I thank him for that, that was cool. That's all I've ever wanted was at least, make me somewhat of an ally because the fans are going to regurgitate whatever he says and he knows that."
Check out Aljamain Sterling's comments below:
Why did Aljamain Sterling and Dana White have a beef to begin with?
Aljamain Sterling and Dana White's feud now seems over, but it was a heated one.
When 'The Funk Master' first won UFC gold in 2021, it came under controversial circumstances. Sterling defeated Petr Yan by disqualification that spring, becoming the first-ever man to win a title based on a foul.
The two later rematched at UFC 273 the following year, and Sterling picked up a split-decision win. In the post-fight press conference, White blasted the judges for not giving 'No Mercy' the victory, saying that they 'blew that one'.
Things stayed tense between the two from there, as Sterling declined to fight top contender Merab Dvalishvili due to their friendship. White publically blasted both as a result, which didn't help matters.
After the champion defeated Henry Cejudo last May, the promoter wanted him to turn around and fight just a few months later. Sterling didn't want to, leading to a few rants from White. However, Sterling wound up signing the deal and lost to Sean O'Malley last August.
As 'The Funk Master' stated, maybe he just needed to lose the title for White to cut him some slack.
