Aljamain Sterling shared his general plan to defeat Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 in April. According to the fighter, he won’t “go hunting for a takedown right out of the gate” but will try to “feel the power.” And despite saying his attacks won’t be in a rush, “Funk Master” believes he will deliver a submission win in the first or second round of the fight.
Sterling will be coming out of his fresh loss to Sean O’Malley, who snatched the belt away from him at UFC 292. The fighter, nonetheless, is making a shift in class weight by entering the featherweight division with a fight against No. 7-ranked Kattar. When asked about it, the fighter is confident about making a finish in his featherweight debut.
“I feel like it (a submission finish) could be first or second round,” Sterling said on the recent episode of The Weekly Scraps.
The statement follows the former champ’s revelation of having a challenging initial phase in his training after weeks of clubbing. According to the 34-year-old, the non-stop hookah, drinking, and late-night sleep took a toll on his lungs, causing him to easily feel exhausted in the training. Yet, for Sterling, this vacation is all over, saying he’s now ready to fight in the octagon and will take time to find the right opportunities to make his latest victory in the upcoming match.
“But honestly, I’m not gonna go hunting for a takedown right out of the gate. I kind of want to get my feet wet a little bit, kind of like how Figgy did it. Just feel the power, feel the pushback, and then kind of go from there.
“Just feel the fight. Let the fight come to me and not rush it,” Sterling continued. “Do what I normally used to do: take my time and just see what comes to me, versus trying to push the action to go on vacation. Now I’m out of vacation mode. I’m ready to scrap; I’m ready to compete. I had a burnout break. So I just feel like I have a fresh lease on my career.”
