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An Aljamain Sterling vs. T.J. Dillashaw bantamweight title fight is being targeted for UFC 279 on September 10, but the UFC is going to have to fix Sterling's pay situation before he signs a bout agreement.
In an interview with MMA Junkie, Sterling made it clear that he wasn't asking for a big pay increase, but rather a standard 'escalator' bump built into many UFC contracts. Those ensure a fighter makes more money after every win. According to 'The Funkmaster,' his current deal is missing that.
"Never in my UFC career have I, or even in my fight career, have I been paid the same exact thing after winning. That’s what I was saying. I’m not asking for 2 million or 3 million. I’m not asking for anything like that. I’m not trying to change the game, so to speak. I mean, that’d be nice. Dana, that’d be nice. I could be the Nelk Boy.”
Sterling is referring to a recent video that showed Dana White giving YouTube star Kyle Forgeard of the Nelk Boys $250,000 for his birthday.
Jokes aside, 'Aljo' insists this is just a small contract correction he's requesting.
“From what I understand, in the contract, there wasn’t actually an escalator for winning.There was only an escalator for challenging and then winning. There was no particular part in the contract that said when you win it, you get escalator. I was just like, ‘Hey, that wasn’t in the contract,’ because if it was, I can’t complain. I would like to try to get a little pay bump."
Aljamain Sterling had previously said he wasn't even willing to start his training camp for the Dillashaw fight until his contract situation was sorted out. However, the bantamweight champ revealed on a new episode of his podcast The Weekly Scraps that his camp is now underway.
Aljamain Sterling opens as a slight betting favorite over T.J. Dillashaw
Sportsbooks didn't give Aljamain Sterling much of a chance to beat Petr Yan in their UFC 273 rematch, and 'The Funkmaster' pulled off a big +350 underdog win. Now Sterling is getting a lot more respect in his upcoming fight against T.J. Dillashaw.
DraftKings has Aljamain Sterling a slight -155 favorite to T.J. Dillashaw's +135 dog status. Those are pretty tight odds, reflecting a solid matchup between relatively equal opponents.
T.J. Dillashaw is used to being the underdog since coming back from a two year USADA suspension for EPO. For his comeback bout against Cory Sandhagen in July 2021, he was a +135 underdog. That didn't stop him from taking an extremely close split decision win.
Unfortunately for Dillashaw, he suffered a bad knee injury early into the fight and needed surgery to repair a medial meniscus bucket handle tear, a lateral meniscus tear, and a PCL tear. A year later and he's finally able to claim the title shot he earned from beating Sandhagen. He now hopes to become a two time UFC bantamweight champion.
