Aljamain Sterling slams UFC president Dana White for recent criticisms - ‘Don’t play with my name bro’

Aljamain Sterling took to his podcast, The Weekly Scraps, to respond directly to Dana White. The UFC bantamweight champion, on episode 232 of his podcast, which he posted to his official YouTube channel, responded to UFC Boss Dana White.

White was asked about Sterling's next fight at the UFC Vegas 73 post-fight press conference. Sterling had previously stated that he would need some time to recover before facing Sean O'Malley in August, before the fight was announced.

To this, Dana White said that the bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling was "one of those guys who can’t get out of his way," alluding to the notion that Sterling had initially tried to postpone the bout.

Check out Dana White's comments here:

Sterling responded to these comments on his podcast, stating:

“Like, what does that even mean? Just clarify what that even means. If you’re going to say that because of me saying, yeah, I’m fighting, but I’m also banged up and I want to see how my body [feels], there has never been a fight that was scheduled where people signed the contract — and remember, contracts are just a formality. [9:20 onwards]

"No one is going to sign a contract and just not show up in the UFC. That just doesn’t happen, so let’s stop pretending that’s a thing. I agreed to the fight, I agreed to the T.J. fight — if you want to ask Dana, ask Dana when I signed the T.J. contract, you guys are going to be wildly surprised. When I say I’m going to show up, I f****** show up and I fight. If we make a deal, I’m a man of my word. I show up and compete every single time. I do what champions do.”

Sterling added:

"Don't play with my name bro. If we're gonna do this together let's get on the same page let's do this." [12:30 onwards]

Check out Aljamain Sterling's comments here:

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Aljamain Sterling to face Sean O'Malley at UFC 292 in Boston on August 19

The UFC announced that Aljamain Sterling will defend his bantamweight title against Sean O'Malley at UFC 292 in Boston, with the pair set to be the main event.

Sterling, after defeating the returning Henry Cejudo via a close split decision is extremely active and will look to have his second defence within just four months.

His opponent, O'Malley, was last in the octagon when he won a decision over Petr Yan, the then-no.1 contender in October 2022. Sterling holds a record of 23-3 and is on a nine-fight win streak, with three defenses of the 135 lb title on the trot.

O'Malley, on the other hand, holds a record of 16-1, and is one of the UFC's fastest rising stars.