Demetrious Johnson and the rest of the MMA world are in collective shock after Aljamain Sterling did the unthinkable: shave his iconic beard. This bold move by the former UFC bantamweight world champion elicited strong reactions from fans, including Johnson, who is a bearded man himself.
Sterling posted his facial transformation on Instagram, with the caption:
"Baby Face Funk is back! Had to switch it up 😅"
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Demetrious Johnson seemed quite perplexed at Aljo's recent manscaping decision. The UFC flyweight and consensus MMA GOAT commented on the post, saying:
"Wtf did you just do!!"
Instagrammer @kingkennyslay had the most hilarious comment, alluding to the Dagestani wrestling facial hair trend:
"Bro if you just kept your chin hair without the mustache your wrestling would be 20 times better"
@jasonmanly seconded this notion with:
"I was excited for Dagestani Aljo 😔"
@thegreentopalacio implored the former UFC bantamweight king to undo his decision:
"No Way The Beard Iconic."
Here are more fan comments:
Aljamain Sterling recently moved up to featherweight and won, beard intact
Beard or no beard, Aljamain Sterling will always be one of the best fighters to ever put on UFC gloves. After losing his belt to 'Sugar' Sean O'Malley last year, the jacked former world champion decided to move up to 145 pounds.
The New York-based fighter made his featherweight debut at the historic UFC 300 event. He defeated divisional stalwart Calvin Kattar via a unanimous decision. The victory symbolized a sigh of relief for Sterling, who contemplated retirement before facing Kattar.
He told Ariel Helwani in The MMA Hour, post UFC 300:
"I got a couple million in the bank. Why am I still doing this?' You know what I mean? So these thoughts happen. They're normal. But I love competing and I think that's what drives me to want to keep going and trying to achieve bigger and greater things."
We are quite grateful and relieved that 'The Funkmaster' didn't decide to hang up his gloves just yet. As for retiring his beard, however, we're still quite divided on the matter.
Here's a clip of his MMA Hour appearance, as posted by Jed I. Goodman on X: