Aljamain Sterling (Lasseur)
Ahead of his co-main duties at UFC 273, we take a look at how Aljamain Sterling ended up with his nickname the Funk Master
UFC 273 features a title rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan in the co-main event. The pair last met at UFC 259 when Sterling won the belt from Yan after the Russian was disqualified for an illegal knee. ‘The Funk Master’ had been sidelined since then, and finally makes his return to validate his claim as the true bantamweight champion. But how exactly did he end up with this name?
Sterling started his wrestling career at Uniondale High School in 2004. Sterling failed to keep up with his grades to reach Division 1 wrestling and ended up opting to enrol at Morrisville State College. Sterling transferred to Cortland and eventually became a two-time NCAA Division III All-American. He had an overall record of 87–27.
He entered the UFC as a former Cage Fury bantamweight champion, and made his debut at UFC 170 against Cody Gibson. He won four consecutive fights before losing to Bryan Caraway. Sterling has notable wins over Cory Sandhagen, Pedro Munhoz, and Jimmie Rivera.
Aljamain Sterling got his nickname from his unorthodox wrestling style way back during his wrestling days. In an old interview, Sterling mentioned that,
”I got my nickname in high school for my wrestling and grappling style. It came through lacking in terms of fundamental skills in terms of wrestling.. as in knowing how to shoot, how to sprawl, and just scrambling for position through pulling weird stuff. So they called me Funky.”
He said that he did not want to pick up the same nickname as Ben Askren, and continued by saying, ” I did not want to use the same nickname as Ben Askren, so I decided to think of some other nickname to work by, but still keep the funk in there. And Funk Master was born.”
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