Aljamain Sterling has his eyes on surging contender Diego Lopes if a potential clash against Movsar Evloev falls through.
Sterling was originally scheduled to fight Evloev at UFC 307 on Oct. 5 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. However, “Funkmaster” was forced out due to an injury suffered in training camp. Sterling would prefer rebooking his matchup with Evloev, who will reportedly not remain on the UFC 307 card, at a later date.
If Evloev doesn’t wait for him, Sterling wants to face Lopes. The former bantamweight champ has commended Lopes’ quick rise to stardom within the span of a year. While Sterling perceived Lopes as a nice, polite guy while training together in the past, he can now sense the tension that’s common for two potential opponents when they now come across each other.
Sterling had always eyed Brian Ortega as the matchup that could catapult him into title contention. However, Lopes beat Ortega via unanimous decision at UFC 306 on Sept. 14 to take a massive leap toward contention at featherweight. Sterling believes now Lopes is the matchup where the risk is worth the reward.
“Maybe Diego Lopes,” Sterling recently told The Schmo. “Maybe that will be a battle for the [No.] 3 [ranking]… I think Diego rising to his stardom, his rise in the sport in the UFC has been huge, is nothing short of inspiring, to be honest. I’m happy for the guy. I got to train with him once — very nice dude, very polite. I can kind of feel the tension shift a little bit now whenever I see him. It seems like there’s a little bit more tension there…
“If we’re talking the next best fight, if Movsar declines, I just don’t know who else would he fight? But if you give me the option, I always wanted Brian Ortega so I could get the closest spot to the top, and now that next closest guy is Diego Lopes. That’s all it is. It has nothing to do with what this guy did or that, it’s the name value, what it gets me, risk vs. reward. And if I’m going to risk it for the biscuit, that’s the guy I’d risk it for.”
After losing his bantamweight title to Sean O’Malley via knockout last year, Sterling moved up to 145 pounds, earning a dominant unanimous decision win over Calvin Kattar in his divisional debut at UFC 300 this past April. Meanwhile, Lopes made his UFC debut on short notice against Evloev at UFC 288 last year, dropping a unanimous decision. The Brazilian has since racked up five consecutive wins, three of them via first-round finishes.
