"But not me Aljo I'm a grown a** man" - Former UFC vet reacts to Aljamain Sterling claiming he can grapple with anybody

The clip of Aljamain Sterling saw grappling with a fellow former UFC champion and the UFC alumni shared his views on it.

The former UFC bantamweight champion trained with Jamahal Hill as the latter prepared to regain the title he never lost. Hill had to drop the belt due to injury and will get a chance to capture it again versus reigning light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira at UFC 300.

The footage was shared on the ESPN MMA Instagram page from Sterling's YouTube channel FunkMasterMMA. The 135-pounder got the better of the mat positions against Hill.

Discussing the training session in the last clip of the IG post, Aljamain Sterling said:

"It just lets me know that I don't need to be 260 [pounds] to dominate somebody. I mean yeah, they can explode a couple times but when they get tired, if you're in a bad position you're just in a bad position. So I definitely feel good about it and I know that I could do a lot better than people may want to admit."

"Because they just can't wrap their head around someone that much smaller than them actually being able to control them and pin them down and submit them. But this is reality," Sterling added.

Many took to the comments section to offer their thoughts on the roll and Derek Brunson was among one of them. On the IG post of Sterling rolling with Hill, Brunson commented:

"Excellent grappler , but not me Aljo I'm a grown a** man"

[Image Courtesy: @espnmma comments section on Instagram]

Check out the Aljamain Sterling-Jamahal Hill post below:

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Aljamain Sterling and his recent competitive grappling

While the roll with Hill took place in the context of a training session, Aljamain Sterling has been actively competing under submission grappling rules in recent times.

The 34-year-old previously competed under MMA rules last August when he lost his UFC bantamweight title. 'Funk Master' lost to Sean O'Malley via a second-round knockout at UFC 292, but he has had multiple grappling contests since last summer.

Sterling competed in September 2023 at Polaris 25: Absolute GP where he got back to his winning ways. He defeated Mike Grundy by a unanimous decision when all was said and done.

The native of New York state would then lose a majority decision last December to Kevin Dantzler. This transpired at Fury Pro Grappling 8 in the headliner but Sterling would quickly pivot to garnering a win just a few weeks after that.

Sterling would occupy another main event slot and secure a split decision win at ADXC 2 in January over Chase Hooper.