Aljamain Sterling wasn’t happy to hear what Aaron Pico had to say about him.
Sterling, a former UFC bantamweight champion and now a contender at featherweight, was accused by Pico of turning down fights and had his fighter mentality questioned because of it. Sterling admits he was caught off guard by the feedback but did not deny turning down Pico.
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He did clarify why a combat between the two just would not make sense for him.
“Aaron Pico called me out, and he basically said I’m a ranking merchant and just squatting on my ranking,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “It’s just fascinating because of three of my UFC fights, and I’ve had over 20-plus UFC fights, three guys were not ranked in the top 15, top 10, top five. It’s just bizarre to me that he can say that when I don’t control how often I get to fight because the UFC has me waiting.
“On prime of that, I’m the only one who called out Movsar Evloev. I called for him to combat before he had an alternative to combat for a world title after shedding to Movsar in a very close combat. I then fought Brian Ortega, who was No. 5. After beating Ortega, I beat Yussef Zalal, who was on an eight-fight win streak, 5 in the UFC, and 4 of those wins in the UFC were finishes. Now I’m combating another killer in Kevin Vallejos. I do not see where the squatting or the making an attempt to shield rank? You have all these guys you can doubtlessly combat. Why are you selecting on me, bro?”
Sterling has one of the toughest schedules on the UFC roster. He’s fought Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, T.J. Dillashaw, Sean O’Malley, Movsar Evloev, Cory Sandhagen, and many other notable names. Sterling is currently scheduled to fight next month against Kevin Vallejo, who’s considered one of the hardest hitters at 145 pounds.
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Pico quickly finished Losene Keita this past Saturday at UFC 333, putting him on a two-fight winning streak after losing his UFC debut by KO to Lerone Murphy in 2025.
Sterling said fighting Pico doesn’t make sense for his career, at least at this point. He’s determined to win his second divisional title, and fighting at Pico this time just doesn’t get him to that goal.
“He lost to Lerone Muprhy in the first spherical in less than two minutes or three, whatever it was, that was his debut,” Sterling said. “Then he came, and he beat (Patricio Freire) ‘Pitbull’ by determination. You beat ‘Pitbull’ by determination, who’s a Bellator man. You’re now ranked 13, and you’re making an attempt to combat me, who’s ranked 4 after I beat two guys – 5 and eight – and now you’re asking why I don’t desire to combat a man who’s 1-1? Bro, I’m making an attempt to go this approach (up). If the UFC advised me, ‘You have to combat Pico, and you have a good efficiency against him, you can combat for the title,’ OK, cool. Done. But that was not the case. After getting some readability, this is the case, is not assured, but if I have a good efficiency against Vallejos, I can doubtlessly be next in line for that title. So here we are: I have Kevin Vallejos.”
Sterling is not opposed to fighting Pico, should that fight make sense for him. He’s not closed to the idea of the two fighting at some point in the future, but he just thinks their paths are not aligning at the moment.
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“It has nothing to do combating guys behind me; I do not care who I combat,” Sterling said. “I just need to know that the direction I’m going is going to take me where I need to go. There’s a vacation spot to the sport, and I know Pico knows that. So him making an attempt to create a narrative that I’m avoiding him, or anyone is avoiding him, no. You came in, and you got flatlined by one man, a determination maker like Movsar Evloev, and then you’re making an attempt to call pictures like you’ve been killing the sport the complete time. Bro, what are you speaking about?”
This article initially appeared on MMA Junkie: Aljamain Sterling finds Aaron Pico’s claim about defending rating ‘weird’
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