The Funk Master Origin Story: How Aljamain Sterling Went From Uniondale to UFC Champion

Last night at UFC Vegas 116, a 36 year old former bantamweight champion climbed on a man's back like a human backpack and stayed there for three rounds. 49-45 across the board. Snapped an eight fight win streak. Then grabbed the mic and said "Volkanovski, you know I'm coming for that ass."

That's the headline. But the story of how Aljamain Sterling got to that moment is the part that actually matters.

Uniondale

Aljamain Antoine Sterling was born July 31, 1989 in Uniondale, New York. His parents, Cleveland and Sophia, immigrated from Jamaica. That's the first thing you need to know about him because Sterling has never let anyone forget it. He walks to the cage with a Jamaican flag every single time. His rum brand is called Funk Harbor and it's a direct nod to his Jamaican roots. When people ask him where he's from he says Uniondale and Jamaica in the same breath.

The second thing you need to know is the house. Sterling grew up with seven full siblings and at least twelve half siblings. ESPN reported that at one point, fourteen children were living under the same roof. Four or five kids sharing a bedroom. His father Cleveland was estranged and abusive. His mother Sophia held everything together.

And the third thing, the thing that explains everything that came after, is what was happening outside that house. Uniondale had gang problems. Real ones. Some of Sterling's brothers got pulled into that life. Friends got arrested. Friends got shot. Sterling watched it happen around him and made a decision that sounds simple but was anything but. He was going to find something else to do.

That something was wrestling.

"I Fell in Love With the Sport"

A coach at Uniondale High School named Tim Godoy saw something in Sterling and pulled him into the wrestling room in 2004. Sterling was 15 years old. He was small. He didn't know what he was doing. His first day he was just scrapping, throwing his body around with zero technique.

He told ESPN years later: "My first day, I was just scrapping. And I fell in love with the sport."

That's one of those lines that sounds like nothing until you understand the context. This wasn't a kid who grew up in a wrestling family. This wasn't a prospect who'd been on the mats since elementary school. This was just some teenager from a broken home in a neighborhood full of gang violence who walked into a wrestling room because a coach told him to and discovered he was good at something that could save his life.

Wrestling didn't just give him competition. It gave him a reason to keep his grades up. It gave him structure when everything around him was chaos. And it gave him an avenue to college, which is exactly how he described it. "Wrestling was my avenue to go to college."

His grades weren't good enough for Division I. That's important because it would've been easy to quit right there. The kid who found wrestling late, who didn't have the academic foundation, who didn't have the recruiting pipeline that suburban kids with private coaches get. Most people in that position don't go to college at all.

But Sterling went to Morrisville State. A SUNY school in central New York. He studied accounting. He wrestled. And that's where he met Jon Jones.

The Jon Jones Connection Nobody Talks About

This is the part that always blows my mind when I think about it. Aljamain Sterling and Jon Jones were at Morrisville State at the same time. They trained together on the wrestling team. Sterling saw pictures of Jones doing BJJ matches and fighting in MMA and that's what sparked his interest in the sport. Jones was Sterling's introduction to mixed martial arts.

Jon Jones. The GOAT. The guy who just called DC a crybaby on a Russian reality show. The most controversial fighter in UFC history. That guy was the reason Aljamain Sterling started thinking about MMA as a career.

After his freshman year Sterling transferred to SUNY Cortland. He switched his major from accounting to physical education. And he became a two time NCAA Division III All American with an 87-27 college wrestling record. That nickname, "The Funk Master," came from his wrestling style at Cortland. He wasn't a traditional wrestler. He was unorthodox, unpredictable, creative. The funk style is all about scrambles and weird angles and doing things your opponent hasn't seen before. Sterling was so good at it they named him after it.

He started his amateur MMA career in 2009. Went 6-1. Then turned pro and started racking up wins on the regional circuit. He became a four time bantamweight champion at Cage Fury Fighting Championships in New Jersey. Which is where the UFC found him.

He made his UFC debut in 2014 with a win over Cody Gibson. He was 24 years old. It had been ten years since he'd walked into that wrestling room at Uniondale High.

Serra-Longo and the Climb

Sterling trains at Serra-Longo Fight Team on Long Island. The gym was founded by former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra and kickboxing coach Ray Longo. Sterling earned his BJJ black belt under Serra, which is significant because Serra is one of the most respected grapplers in MMA history.

The gym also produced Chris Weidman, Al Iaquinta, and Merab Dvalishvili. Sterling and Merab trained together for years as teammates before they eventually had to fight each other for the bantamweight title. That's the kind of thing that only happens in MMA. Your training partner becomes your opponent for a championship belt and you both have to pretend the years of friendship don't make it weird.

Sterling's UFC climb was steady but not flashy. He won seven of his first eight UFC fights. Then hit a rough patch. Lost to Marlon Moraes by first round knockout at UFC 238. People wrote him off. He came back and won five straight to earn his title shot against Petr Yan at UFC 259.

And then the most controversial moment of his career happened.

The DQ That Nobody Let Him Forget

March 6, 2021. UFC 259. Sterling vs Yan for the bantamweight title. Sterling was losing the fight. Yan was in control. And then in the fourth round, Yan threw a knee to Sterling's head while Sterling was on the ground. It was illegal. Sterling couldn't continue. The referee stopped the fight and awarded Sterling the title by disqualification.

Aljamain Sterling became the first UFC champion in history to win a title by DQ.

And bro the MMA world absolutely destroyed him for it.

People said he faked being hurt. People said he didn't deserve the belt. People said he was an "illegitimate" champion. Memes everywhere. Social media was brutal. For over a year, Sterling had to walk around with a belt that half the fanbase said wasn't really his.

Most fighters would've crumbled under that pressure. Sterling came back and fought Yan in the rematch at UFC 273 and won by split decision. A real win. A clear win. He proved he belonged and he did it against the same man who'd given him the most controversial title in UFC history.

Then he defended against Henry Cejudo at UFC 288. Won by split decision. Defended against TJ Dillashaw. Won when Dillashaw's shoulder gave out. Three successful defenses. The kid from Uniondale who won the belt on a DQ held it for four fights and beat three legitimate contenders.

The he lost it to Sean O'Malley at UFC 292 in August 2023. Second round TKO. And instead of trying to get the bantamweight belt back, Sterling did something that told you everything about who he is.

He moved up in weight.

The Featherweight Bet

Sterling announced he was done cutting to 135 permanently. The weight cuts had taken too much out of him. Years of draining his body down to bantamweight had accumulated and he wasn't going to do it anymore.

So at 34 years old, after holding a title at 135, he moved to featherweight and started over. New division. Bigger opponents. Different challenges. The kind of career decision that either makes you a legend or ends your relevance.

His featherweight debut was a win over Calvin Kattar. Then he lost to Movsar Evloev at UFC 310 in December 2024. Then he beat Kenan Song. And last night, he beat Youssef Zalal 49-45 to move to 3-1 at 145 pounds.

The loss to Evloev is the only blemish. And Evloev is probably the best contender in the division right now. Losing to the best guy isn't the same as losing to a gatekeeper. Sterling's featherweight record tells you he belongs at this level. Last night confirmed it.

Last Night

Let me be honest about how the Zalal fight actually went. The first two rounds were slow. Sterling was patient. Zalal was cautious. Nobody was going to confuse it with a Fight of the Night contender early on.

But then Sterling found it. With less than a minute left in the second round he got the takedown and the fight changed completely. From that point on it was vintage Funk Master. He took Zalal's back multiple times, threatened rear naked chokes, piled up ground and pound, and turned a chess match into a five round clinic.

The fourth round was a 10-8 on all three cards. Sterling had Zalal on the ground the entire round. By the fifth he was showboating. Hands behind his head. Talking to the corner. Doing champion things when the fight was clearly over.

49-45. 49-45. 49-45. That's as wide as a five round decision gets without a finish. Against a guy who'd won eight straight fights. A former training partner who knew his game inside and out. And Sterling made it look easy.

Then the mic came out.

"They call me unc now. I'm 36 years old, so I'm trying to make one more title run."

"Movsar, I'm coming for that ass next. Volkanovski, you know I'm coming for that ass."

They call bro unc now. And unc just made the entire featherweight top ten look like nephews.

The Kid From Uniondale

Here's what I keep coming back to. Sterling had every reason to not be here. Twenty siblings. Abusive father. Brothers in gangs. Friends getting shot. A neighborhood that swallowed people whole. Grades that weren't good enough for D1. A title win that half the world said wasn't legitimate. A loss to O'Malley that could've ended his run. A move up in weight at 34 that everybody thought was a farewell tour.

And bro he's still here. 36 years old. 26-5. Former champion. Hall of Fame caliber career. BJJ black belt under Matt Serra. Chasing a second divisional title in a weight class he's only been fighting in for two years. Calling out Volkanovski on live television like he's 25 and just getting started.

Some fighters are born into the sport. Some fighters find it by accident. Sterling found it because a high school wrestling coach saw a kid who needed somewhere to go and pointed him toward a room with mats on the floor. Everything that came after, the All American honors, the Cage Fury titles, the Serra-Longo years, the bantamweight belt, the DQ controversy, the featherweight run, all of it traces back to that one moment in Uniondale when Tim Godoy said "come try this" and a 15 year old kid from a house with 14 children said yes.

"They call me unc now." Yeah they do. And unc isn't done yet.

Thanks for riding with CageLore. Stay locked in!

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Aljamain Sterling from?

Sterling was born July 31, 1989 in Uniondale, New York. His parents, Cleveland and Sophia Sterling, immigrated from Jamaica. He grew up with seven full siblings and at least twelve half siblings in a large household.

How did Sterling get into MMA?

Sterling started wrestling at Uniondale High School in 2004 to avoid gang life in his neighborhood. He met Jon Jones while wrestling at Morrisville State College, which sparked his interest in MMA. He started his amateur MMA career in 2009 and turned pro in 2011.

What does "Funk Master" mean?

Sterling's nickname comes from his unorthodox wrestling style at SUNY Cortland, where he became a two time NCAA Division III All American. The funk style relies on scrambles, unusual angles, and unpredictable movement.

Did Sterling really win the title by DQ?

Yes. At UFC 259 in March 2021, Petr Yan threw an illegal knee to Sterling's head while Sterling was grounded. Sterling couldn't continue and was awarded the bantamweight title by disqualification. He became the first UFC champion in history to win a title by DQ. He proved his legitimacy by beating Yan in the rematch at UFC 273.

What happened in the Sterling vs Zalal fight?

Sterling defeated Youssef Zalal by unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45, 49-45) in the main event of UFC Vegas 116 on April 25, 2026. He dominated with back control over the final three rounds, snapping Zalal's eight fight win streak.

What is Sterling's record at featherweight?

Sterling is 3-1 at featherweight since moving up from bantamweight in 2024. His only loss at 145 pounds was to top contender Movsar Evloev.

Who does Sterling want to fight next?

Sterling called out featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and top contender Movsar Evloev after his win over Zalal. He likely needs one more win to secure a title shot.

Where does Sterling train?

Sterling trains at Serra-Longo Fight Team on Long Island, New York. The gym was founded by former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra and coach Ray Longo. Sterling holds a BJJ black belt under Serra.