Aljamain Sterling is an American bantamweight fighter currently holding the UFC Bantamweight Title. He is a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Serra, and  Is a former NCAA Division III wrestler. He trains out of Serra-Longo Fight Team in Long Island, New York. He has an Associates degree in Physical Education from SUNY Cortland. He has won 135 pound titles in Ring of Combat, CFFC and the UFC. 

Sterling was a two time NCAA Division III All American wrestler out of SUNY Cortland. While in college, he was invited by Jon Jones to begin training at Team Bombsquad. He finished his college career with a record of 87-27. He made his amateur debut in 2009 with a second round submission win. He would not fight again for a year, but when he came back, he suffered the only loss of his amateur career, a five round split decision. He would bounce back with ease, going 5-0 over the next four months with four submissions while also picking up a 145 pound and 135 pound title.

He dedicates his nickname, to who he calls "the orginal Funk Master" - in Ben Askren. Sterling said he was influenced by Askrens effective grappling style, studying it and applying aspects to his own game, and improving his own technique. He has also stated many times he is grateful for the many benefits the sport of competitive wrestling has provided him over the years in life, as well as in the cage.

In 2011, Aljamain would make his professional debut with a unanimous decision win. After picking up another submission win, he would be given a shot at the Ring of Combat bantamweight belt which he would win in a split decision. He would vacate the belt in order to begin fighting for CFFC. He made his promotional debut against Evan Chmieleski and was able to pick up the first TKO of his career. His next fight would be against Sean Santella for the CFFC bantamweight belt. He would win the fight by unanimous decision and go on to defend it three times with all three wins coming by rear naked choke.

In early 2014, Sterling would be picked up by the UFC as a replacement against Lucas Martins at UFC 170. Shortly after he was signed, Martins also had to withdraw from the fight and he was replaced by fellow debutant, Cody Gibson. In an exciting, back and forth fight, Sterling would come out on top to win a unanimous decision. He would then go on to finish Hugo Viana, Takeya Mizugaki, and Johnny Eduardo, back, to back, to back before putting his perfect 12-0 record on the line when he took on Bryan Caraway at UFC Fight Night 88. After a strong start from Sterling he would begin to fade in the next two rounds and would lose his perfect record via a split decision loss that saw Caraway emerge victorious. In an attempt to bounce back from this loss, Sterling would take on Raphael Assuncao at UFC on FOX 23 but would once again come up on the wrong side of a split decision.

After his two fight skid, Sterling would be put up against Augusto Mendes at UFC on FOX 24, he would break his losing streak by winning a unanimous decision over Augusto. He would then take on the former number 1 pound for pound fighter in the world and the former UFC Bantamweight Champion, Renan Barao at UFC 214, after a relatively close first round he would dominate the second round and then close the fight out with a good third round to earn himself yet another unanimous decision win, handing Renan Barao his fifth ever loss.

Aljamain would then take on former WSOF Bantamweight champion, "Magic" Marlon Moraes at UFC Fight Night 123, and just over a minute into the fight he would get hit by a perfectly timed knee which put Sterling out cold. Handing him his first ever stoppage loss. In an attempt to rebound after his loss to Moraes, Sterling would be back after only 4 months to take on the undefeated, 15-0  Brett Johns at UFC Fight Night 128, he would prove to be too much for the undefeated Welshman though, handing him his first ever loss after sweeping the scorecards for a 30-27 across the board. Sterling would then take on Cody Stamann five months later at UFC 228 and would be the second person ever to get a suloev stretch submission in the UFC behind Kenny Robertson who submitted Brock Jardine with It back in 2013. Zabit Magomedsharipov would also manage to get a suloev stretch at UFC 228 after seeing Sterling get it earlier that night. 

Following his beautiful submission victory over Stamann, Sterling would take on and defeat Jimmie Rivera and Pedro Munhoz back to back at UFC on ESPN 1, and UFC 238 respectively. He would then be put up against the surging prospect Cory Sandhagen in a number one contender ship fight, the fight was a pick-em on the betting odds but Sterling would make quick work of Cory by taking his back early in the fight and then securing a choke less than 90 seconds into the contest. This win would earn him a title shot against newly crowned Bantamweight Champion Petr Yan. 

The fight was originally scheduled to take place at UFC 256 but Petr Yan was forced to withdraw so the fight was rebooked for UFC 259. Sterling would come out hot in round one, throwing a high volume of strikes but would get clipped by some good shots near the end of the round and get flash knocked down but would recover between rounds, he would then continue his high output through round two before he started to fade in round 3 and 4 where Yan started to take over the fight completely, pretty much just toying with Sterling but then at the end of round 4, Yan made the biggest mistake of his entire career as he threw a knee to the head of a kneeling Sterling. The knee connected flush and sent Sterling to the canvas, after a while of Sterling rolling on the canvas the fight was called off and Sterling would be the first person in history to win a UFC title via disqualification. 

Needless to say a rematch had to be booked, and so It was scheduled for UFC 267 but Sterling was forced out of the fight with a neck injury as he needed surgery and so Petr decided to stay on the card and fight Cory Sandhagen for the Interim Bantamweight Title, Yan would beat Sandhagen to become the Interim title holder and in many peoples eyes the rightful champion. 

Finally at UFC 273 the rematch was official and Sterling would look to defend his title against his former opponent and Interim title holder, Petr Yan. Aljamain entered the fight as an underdog despite being the champion, coming in at a whooping +340, Sterling started the fight off kind of slow but still landed a good amount of body kicks in the first round, Yan had minimal output but landed some nice punches then In round 2 Sterling managed to take the back of Yan relatively quickly and he hold on to it for the rest of the round, threatening submissions and landing some nice shots from the back, round 3 was more of the same but less dominantly, round 4 turned out to be a rude awakening for Sterling though as he failed to secure the takedown and Yan started to land a lot of good shots putting Sterling on the retreat. Round 5 was more of the same from Yan and so the pairing went to the judges scorecards. After all five rounds, only one round was up for contention, whoever won the first round would be the undisputed champion of the world. Aljamain Sterling would be awarded the split decision win over Petr Yan. Retaining his title and proving that you can't write someone off after one bad night. 

Aljamain Sterling has called out former UFC Bantamweight Champion T.J. Dillashaw for his next fight but It remains to be seen when he will defend his belt next and whether or not It will be against Dillashaw.