Aljamain Sterling Prefers Brian Ortega Over Movsar Evloev as Next Opponent

Aljamain Sterling recently picked Brian Ortega over Movsar Evloev as his next preferred opponent, a decision that incited a callout from the Russian.

Sterling earned a lopsided unanimous decision win against Calvin Kattar in his featherweight debut at UFC 300. The former bantamweight champ subsequently called out Ortega.

Sterling weighed out the technicalities of the potential fights, both of which are a “grappler’s delight,” according to him. Sterling lauded Ortega’s aggressive guard, which always makes for wild grappling exchanges. While Sterling also lauded Evloev’s wrestling, he believes he can “easily” match the Russian’s ground game. “Funkmaster” also claims to have fared well in grappling against some of the guys that Evloev trained with even while out of shape.

“Both of these fights are a grappler’s delight,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “If I were to fight Ortega, if you take him down, he ain’t gonna hang out on his back. He’s looking for triangles, he’s looking for armbars off of his back, he’s looking for kimuras, he’s looking for up and over sweeps, umpas, he’s looking to jump guillotines, he’s doing it all. Flying triangles, he does it all.

“You got Movsar Evloev, mostly just grappling, gets to that Dagestani position that they are known for, where they get behind you, kind of just lock their hands and hang out there,” Sterling added. “But if they get to triangle your legs and beat you up, then they take advantage and they grind you down until you are like nothing. Very tough matchups both of them. I think that my wrestling would easily go toe-to-toe with Evloev, easily. I don’t think there’s any difference in how good his wrestling is compared to mine. I don’t know if he has a judo or sambo background. That could maybe add a little bit of wrinkle to the game. But some of the guys he’s grappled with, I’ve grappled with them and I’d like to think, even when I’m out of shape… and I have grappled with those guys, I’m pretty competitive. So that’s just my honest assessment. That would be a head-to-head fight where whoever gets the takedown first – tt might even end up just being like, ‘You know what, either one of us don’t wanna exert too much energy in the grappling’ — maybe Evloev and I just end up standing up.”

While Sterling claims to be intrigued by both matchups, the former bantamweight champ would prefer the higher-ranked Ortega in order to gain relevance in the featherweight title picture.

“There’s so many possibilities with the grappling aspect of things and that’s what I like about both those fights. If you’re gonna ask me which fight do I want, give me Brian Ortega. He is the highest-ranked guy not named Max Holloway and not named Alexander Volkanovski. I beat him, I think it puts me automatically in a position where I get to fight for the title.”

Sterling’s comments invited a callout from Evloev.

“[Aljamain Sterling], brave for you to talk about me,” Evloev wrote. “I like it! Call UFC and fight me. I’m ready.”