Aljamain Sterling

Aljamain Antoine Sterling (born July 31, 1989) is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Bantamweight Champion. Sterling is the first UFC champion to win a title by disqualification. He also competed for Cage Fury Fighting Championship, where he is a former Cage Fury Fighting Bantamweight Champion. As of August 26, 2025, he is #5 in UFC featherweight rankings.

Sterling was born in 1989 in Uniondale, New York to Jamaican parents, Cleveland and Sophia Sterling. He grew up with seven full siblings and at least 12 half-siblings. To stay away from the prevalent gang life in which some of his brothers joined, Sterling started wrestling at Uniondale High School in 2004.

Unable to catch up with the grades to reach Division I, Sterling opted to enroll at Morrisville State College where he continued wrestling. During the time in Morrisville, Sterling developed an interest in MMA when he met Jon Jones and trained on the wrestling team. After his freshman year, Sterling transferred to Cortland and eventually became a two-time NCAA Division III All-American with a record of 87–27. Sterling graduated from Cortland with a bachelor's degree in physical education.

After years of absence from wrestling competition, Sterling wrestled and grappled two-time NCAA DI wrestling All-American and sophomore from Penn State Roman Bravo-Young, on December 22, 2020, at the NLWC IV. The rules consisted of six minutes of freestyle wrestling and three minutes of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Sterling was defeated by points in the first match 6-4 but tapped out Bravo-Young in the second one.

Sterling's nickname “The Funk Master” comes from his unorthodox wrestling style.

While studying in Cortland, Sterling was invited by Jones to try out mixed martial arts at his gym of that time, The BombSquad in Ithaca, New York. A few fights into his professional career, Sterling left The BombSquad and started training at Serra-Longo Fight Team.

Sterling started his amateur career in 2009 with a submission win. Prior to turning pro Sterling compiled a 6–1 amateur record with the lone loss coming by way of split decision, he would eventually avenge this loss. Sterling captured the Raging Wolf amateur Bantamweight Championship and Extreme FC amateur Featherweight Championship along the way.

Sterling started his professional career 2–0, before earning a shot at the ROC Bantamweight Championship. He would go on to defeat Claudio Ledesma by split decision to capture the title. Although this would turn out to be his last bout under the Ring of Combat organization, as he would later sign with Cage Fury Fighting Championships.