Aljamain Sterling says Cory Sandhagen cussed him out after their UFC 250 fight, and Sterling still thinks Sandhagen had every right to.
Sterling told the story on his YouTube channel. He said he ran into Sandhagen later that night in June 2020, after he had tapped him with a rear-naked choke in under 90 seconds.
“I saw him later that night in the courtyard and basically he said, ‘Congrats, you f*cking asshole,’” Sterling said. “I was just like, ‘Fair.’”
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He added: “What can I say to that? You got it. I’ll take that.”
The stakes that night explain the temperature. Sterling and Sandhagen met on the UFC 250 main card with a bantamweight title shot against Petr Yan expected for the winner. Sterling settled the No. 1 contender question almost immediately. He got Sandhagen to the mat and finished the choke before most people had settled into their seats, and he went on from there to become UFC champion. Losing a title eliminator is bad enough. Losing it in less time than the walkout took is worse.
The memory came up while Sterling and his co-hosts were discussing Andre Fili’s knockout of Kai Kamaka III this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 122. Fili landed a head kick, started toward Kamaka, then pulled up once he saw Kamaka wasn’t getting back up. The featherweight veteran explained the restraint afterward: “I’m a criminal, but I’m not a piece of shit.”
Sterling has been on the wrong end of two knockouts, the first a knee from Marlon Moraes. He laughed when asked whether it would have meant anything for Moraes to check on him afterward. His answer was a flat no, and he asked what the point would even be.
He still gave Fili credit. Sterling said the finish reminded him of the Moraes knee, when Moraes seemed to realize right away that the fight was over. He said finishing a fight is not always the fighter’s call to make, which is why Fili’s choice to hold back stood out to him.
“So good on him, good control for him to do that,” Sterling said. “I like seeing stuff like that.”
Sterling also pointed to the easy excuse Fili turned down. A fighter in that spot, he said, could blame the referee or take the Derrick Lewis approach and claim it wasn’t his fault, and he gave Fili kudos for doing neither.
My take: Sandhagen’s line is about as honest as post-fight sportsmanship gets, and I prefer it to the rehearsed hug-and-smile routine. He had just lost a title eliminator in less time than it takes to read a commercial break, and he still walked up and congratulated the guy. The swear word was the honest part. Sterling’s one-word reply was the right answer, because it was a dominant win. He grounded a dangerous striker and took the back with no wasted motion, and that’s the part of the night that should be remembered. Sandhagen got the courtyard moment. Sterling got the title shot against Yan.
