Aljamain Sterling has his next featherweight fight lined up, and it’s headed to Qatar. The former UFC bantamweight champion broke the news on X on Monday, bundling it with a playful jab at the weekend’s pay-per-view. His caption read, “UFC 332 wasnt the worst card.. OR was it!? + Announcing my next fight at UFC QATAR,” with a link attached.
The post itself gives up very little. It names no opponent and no date, and says nothing about where on the Qatar card he’ll land. For now, the confirmed part is simple: Funk Master is booked, and he’s flying east to do it.
He’s coming back as a real factor at 145. Combat Press’ October rankings slot Sterling at No. 4 at featherweight, behind Alex Volkanovski, Diego Lopes and Yair Rodriguez and one spot ahead of Movsar Evloev, with Brian Ortega and Lerone Murphy right behind. The division barely moved in September. According to Combat Press, the only top-10 featherweight in action was No. 8 Jean Silva, who weathered a competitive first round against José Miguel Delgado before turning up the pressure and getting a third-round submission.
Sterling’s bantamweight history came up again this week, from an unexpected direction. After Payton Talbott called out Sean O’Malley, O’Malley posted his last seven opponents on his Instagram Story and wrote, “4 out of last 7 fights have been against 3 of the greatest bantamweights of all time. Ain’t duckin no one.” Sterling is one of the three. O’Malley took the 135-pound belt from him at UFC 292 in August 2023 with a TKO at 0:51 of Round 2.
That callout came out of UFC 332, the same card Sterling is teasing. The Salt Lake City event produced 11 knockouts, according to Yahoo Sports, including a record nine in the first round. Talbott delivered the loudest one in the co-main. He hurt former two-time flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo with a right hand and kept swinging until referee Jason Herzog waved it off at 2:09 of the opening round. It was Talbott’s second straight win over a former champion after a unanimous decision over Henry Cejudo. “I just mopped the floor with two champions back-to-back, and I want another one,” Talbott said in his post-fight interview. Not every finish was clean, either. Athlon Sports ran a headline asking whether Herb Dean stopped King Green vs. Esteban Ribovics too soon.
Meanwhile, the bantamweight title picture Sterling left behind settles itself soon. Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili meet in their trilogy at UFC 333 on October 24.
My take: a No. 4 ranking means Sterling shouldn’t be taking a tune-up in Qatar. Volkanovski, Lopes and Rodriguez are the three names above him, and Evloev is right behind him, a wrestler who would make for a grinding, chess-heavy fight with Sterling that I’d happily stay up for. Sterling’s caption asked whether UFC 332 was the worst card. With 11 knockouts and a record nine in the first round, the answer is plainly no. The bigger unknown sits behind his link: the name of the man he’s fighting in Qatar.
