Aljamain Sterling is already pondering about his retirement while he’s still set to make his debut in featherweight. The fighter is not certain when this will happen, but for him, it might take at least six more fights.
Sterling is expected to have his first 145-pound match at UFC 300, where he will face Calvin Kattar. The move came after he lost his bantamweight belt to Sean O’Malley last August, pushing the fighter to find another class weight to dominate. However, there are some trades to make, with Sterling seemingly admitting that the class weight switch could affect the number of fights he could take. With this, for “Funk Master,” there might only be a handful of fights for him to take before he hangs up the gloves.
“I really don’t know (if this is the final push). I’m taking it one fight at a time,” Sterling said on The MMA Hour. “I think I’ve got six more good fights, if I had to put a number. I don’t have a number, but I think at the rate that I can now take fights (at featherweight) — mind you, what did I have, like four fights in 16, 17 months as a champ? That’s a lot, man. That’s a lot of five-round camps.”
If the numbers are to be taken seriously, it could mean that the 34-year-old only has some months left in his plan. Yet, Sterling hopes to make a mark and get the best out of the time left.
“I’m hoping now that these are three-rounders, maybe I can turn them around a little bit quicker,” Sterling said. “Even if I don’t become the champ, man, I would like to just set records, set goals, and make as much money as I can because when it’s done, it’s done. There’s no, ‘I wanna go back in time, maybe I should have taken that fight, maybe I should have rolled the dice.’ … I don’t wanna have regrets. I can see for sure that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
