Aljamain Sterling was on the wrong end of a brutal knee strike knockout against former WSOF Bantamweight Champion Marlon Moraes at UFC Fight Night Fresno.
The bantamweight suffered the first knockout loss of his career that night and the fighter believes the UFC should better help those who do get their clocks cleaned.
“I enjoy being a part of the UFC, of course, but I definitely think they could have done a lot better with updating the fans and everybody else,” Sterling said on The MMA Hour. “Especially, we have loved ones back home, so I had people trying to call me, trying to reach me, they couldn’t get in touch with me, obviously I was still delirious, delusional. Had no service, so the least they could have done was get a follow-up report and get something out for the press or something at least for the people who are actively checking and wanted to really know, who are actually really concerned about how I was doing, and to actually have some piece of mind and to know what was going on. Not for nothing, I’ve been getting along a lot better with Sean Shelby and even Dana White himself, obviously it’s a business relationship so I don’t expect these guys to be my friends or my best friends, I don’t look at it like that. But at least a text message to say, ‘Just checking to see if you’re doing OK. Making sure you’re alive.’ I think that’s common courtesy. I’m technically one of your employees, no matter if you want to call it self-employed, I’m still one of your employees. If you were my boss and I didn’t like you, I’m still going to check on your well-being, that’s just how I am, but from a human being standpoint I think that would have been a cool thing to wake up to.”
For those who didn’t see the live broadcast on Fox Sports 1, no update was provided on Sterling and the camera never showed him again after the knockout.
Sterling also feels a little letdown by the fact that nobody from the UFC checked up on him after such a devastating moment.
“It was kind of a letdown,” Sterling said. “I almost wanted to text them sarcastically and be like, ‘Hey, just to let you guys know, I’m alive.’ But like I said, it’s a business relationship, I know what I signed up for, I don’t expect these guys to be my friends, I just thought they would have had a little bit more human decency to do something like that. And I’m not trying to put them in any position, I just think for the future, not just saying ‘woe is me’, but for other fighters it would go a long way in terms of the fighters’ minds and how we perceive our bosses. It makes it seem like they actually give a s**t, that’s all I’m saying.”
Moraes was actually a late replacement in the fight because Rani Yahya suffered an injury during training camp.
