UFC Champ Reveals: Mental Warfare in Business & MMA | Aljamain Sterling DSH #991

Like, how much natural talent did you have, I guess?

I feel like I did naturally have a good IQ over most people in terms of combat, but naturally, I feel like I above the pack,

I was kind of solid at coming out of the gate.

Yeah, yeah, so that was your work ethic, is what took you to that champion.

Yeah, everything is work ethic.

Man, like, everyone could throw punches, everyone could throw knees, everyone could throw kicks, but it's about how you train, how you prepare yourself, and uh, get ready for the mental and physical warfare.

all right, guys, got Al Jermaine Sterling here, got his liquor brand, and uh, we're at the CPT here.

You just busted out, all right?

Damn, that sounds crazy when you say it like that.

I thought I was gonna make it to the final table, but I didn't.

Did not make it to the final table.

Was it a bad beat, or were you outplayed?

I was outlucked by Cardell Jones for the, I think maybe the fourth time on the table.

I think I had him beat until he beat me, pause, on the river three times in a row and then the fourth one sent me home damn so just imagine that like i just didn't i kept slow rolling him and everybody else and then uh he just kept catching it on the river every single time like dude this is absurd luck yeah the percentages is just crazy yeah that shouldn't happen yeah are you big on poker you play outside of this no just this just this otherwise i would have bet heavy on the first on the on the river and then hopefully not the river the um the flop right i would have bet heavy on the flop, and then maybe I would have scared him off, but unfortunately, I slow rolled him, and then he just stuck around long enough to win the hand.

I feel that.

Damn, man.

Shit.

Cold-blooded.

It happens.

Any fights coming up?

October 5th, Salt Lake City, UFC 307 is going down, taking on Mosar Eve Louva.

And

I can't wait to take that off.

Let's go.

Also, your teammate Murab's got a fight coming up.

He's fighting for the belt, right?

Yeah.

What's it like being able to be in his corner for that fight?

Just like every other fight.

You know, I try to remind him, like, this is just like everything else.

Just be you.

Take your time.

And if I can give you any type of advice, do not rush in and then lay an egg in the middle of rushing in and then realize that you're about to get clapped.

No diddy.

So just don't make those mistakes.

And I think it'd be a good night for us.

Boom.

Especially for him.

Yeah.

When you were first starting out, were you just really good at first?

Or did you have

like how much natural talent did you have, I guess?

I mean, wrestling-wise, I feel like I did naturally have a good IQ over most people in terms of combat.

But of course, it takes time to develop that, and then you start to learn more tricks and things.

And as you train more, but naturally, I feel like I, above the pack, I was kind of solid at coming out of the gate.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that was your work ethic is what took you to that champ level.

Yeah.

Everything is work ethic, man.

Like, everyone could throw punches, everyone could throw knees, everyone could throw kicks, but it's about how you train, how you prepare yourself, and get ready for the mental and physical warfare.

Right.

So you're friends with a lot of the champions, do you see any similarities in all them, all their training and all that?

I would say so.

I think the main thing is

knowing what you need to do versus having someone always telling you.

It's one thing to have your coaches there that can kind of let you know and guide you.

But it's another thing to kind of have an idea of what you should do and where you should be at.

Like I've always been very, I don't want to say self-trained, but for the most part, kind of like dictating how my camp should go, what I need to work on, because I'm honest with the things I need to work on.

I know I need to work on my striking.

I know I need to get better in these other avenues, but for the most part, I know how to prepare to win.

with the tools that I have that I was blessed with.

Right.

That's good that you know your weaknesses because some people won't acknowledge that, right?

And that's their weakness.

100%.

And that's the problem.

If you can't be real to yourself, then how are you going to go out there and win time and time again?

Right.

Because each fight is so different, right?

Yes.

You're training for a whole new fight.

Yep.

100%.

Each one comes with a new puzzle, a new riddle you got to try to solve.

And

hopefully you do your best, trying to leave no stones unturned and get ready for that math equation.

And hopefully you have the answers.

Absolutely.

Who's been your toughest fight so far?

Toughest fight in terms of like competing the whole fight.

I would say Pedro Munoz, because

for that fight, I actually tore my scaphoid lunate ligament probably in 2015.

I fought him in 2019

and it got progressively worse.

So by the time that fight came along, I couldn't really rely on my wrestling.

So I shot a couple times, but he just kind of stuffed the takedowns.

But I kind of knew going into it, like I'm going to have to use this to blanket what I'm trying to do, which is score some points.

He's not going to quit.

I know I wasn't a knockout fighter.

Like I wasn't hitting knockout punches, one punch, knockout, things like that.

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And I knew Pedro wasn't going to walk into a shop for me to knock him out like that.

So I knew I had to be ready for 15 minutes.

And that was probably my most action-packed, fun fight for 15 minutes straight, just non-stop action.

I think we actually set the record for bandawai strikes in 15 minutes.

Wow.

So you were gassed by the end of that one.

I was shot.

I was shot.

I didn't have no chance to just take them down and rest.

It was constant action the entire time.

And I felt like that fight made me come out the other side a better, a better fight.

Wow.

So that was like a stamina fight, like who could last longer, right?

Oh, 100%.

You guys were both trying to tire each other out playing like a mind game, right?

And that's the side of the fight people don't see, the mind game.

Yeah.

Mind games are a very big part of competing.

You can do all the physical stuff, but if your mind is not in the right place, and I kind of remind myself of the, I remind myself, but I point to the Amali fight.

Just not having your mind in the right place.

Like, you can do all the physical work, like, even though I try to trick myself as best as I can that you're ready to go.

If your mind and your spirit's not in the right place, ready to compete, and you're not in the right headspace, bad things will happen.

And that's exactly what happened on the night.

The better man won that night.

So you kind of have to just make sure you're all dialed in from a physical, mental, and spiritual front.

And that's just the way I typically like to approach the game.

And I think that's what helped me get to the top to begin with.

Wow.

So that old Mali fight you didn't feel there mentally?

Nah, I mean, the first round, I did what I needed to do.

Like, I stuck to the game plan.

And then round two, I don't know what it was in between rounds.

I asked

my coaches, was it round close?

Did you think I won?

I forgot what they said in between rounds, but in my head, I just kind of switched to flipped the switch and I was like, I'm just going to go forward and try to gas pedal him.

And I just wanted to be out of the cage.

And unfortunately, that was completely against the game plan.

And I paid for it.

So it's just one of those things.

Like, you have a game plan.

You have a recipe for success.

All three judges had me winning that round.

And of course, we didn't even get to go to a second round, past the second round, I should say.

So if I just stuck to the game plan, I think...

If I were to keep it the same way, it would have been a boring fight, but I think I would have gotten the job done.

But again, once

you make that decision to make a certain type of move, which I did,

threw a cross,

miscalculated the distance, didn't roll my head afterwards, just kind of stood there, froze, and

got capitalized on a good counter-striker, and he won the fight.

Damn.

Do you see fighters have that moral dilemma of, okay, I can win this, but it'll be boring.

But if I make this entertaining, my money might go up later down the road?

I don't know if there's fighters that are thinking, like, if I make this entertaining, my money goes up down the line.

Unless you're Michael Chandler.

And no disrespect to him, because he fights.

He said, I'm here for a good time, not for a long time.

Like, he wears his heart on his sleeve.

He goes out there.

He's just looking to entertain from the beginning of the belt all the way to the end.

I don't fight like that.

I didn't get to the top by fighting like that.

And

it's hard to say.

I don't think many guys are

fighting like that with that thought process.

And if you are, then more power to you.

But at the end of the day, is

winning, winning.

At the end of the day, nobody is going to go back in time and go, but that was a boring fight.

You're going to look and see who won, who lost, and that's going to be your curriculum to judge who was the best at a certain time period and a certain time.

Fair enough.

That's the way I look at it.

Yeah.

Well, you see Khabib who's undefeated, but then you see the trolls online that are like, his fights are boring, so he's not the GOAT.

You can say his fights were boring, but he was very dominant.

So it's like, what's better, being dominant or being into super entertaining and flashy and making it a bar fight and then having to go home possibly losing getting half your paycheck and then maybe going home with stitches in your face yeah oh so if you lose it's half half your paycheck usually damn so so there's a lot on the line when it comes to winning and losing then 100 so uh you know that's one thing i do wish the fans would understand it's not like we're nba nfl soccer players um playing in the leagues overseas where we can make all this millions and it doesn't matter what you're doing there.

Just go out there and have fun and go crazy as you can.

We're literally fighting for our next paycheck to possibly last us maybe the next year, especially for me coming to New York, like living and growing up in New York, for me to have one fight and it doesn't go my way, like, yeah,

half that paycheck, it doesn't affect you.

It affects you a lot.

So, especially when you're coming up, like now I'm in a different tax bracket.

So I'm fortunate and blessed that I've been able to win as many fights as I did and accomplish what I've been able to accomplish.

But for the most part, the average guy in New York, you know, people might say, oh, you could just move out of New York.

Yeah, I'm going to tell my coaches to leave your wife and your children and just come move with me and come do all these things in another state.

It doesn't work like that.

You know, so

with that said, it's just a very tough place.

And that's why I do appreciate being able to grow up in New York because I know how gritty it could be, how tough it could be.

And I think that's where I kind of learned to be who I am today.

Yeah, New York ain't cheap.

So when you see these crazy bags and boxing, what goes through your head?

How are we not getting that?

Way more fun, way more entertaining, multiple ways to win.

These guys are in there rigging fights and

somehow, some way they're getting paid millions on millions.

And it's usually just the main event, maybe the co-main.

Well, we have a stacked card, and all these guys are so talented, and we get a fraction, a small, a fraction of a fraction of what these guys are getting.

Of course, I'm in a different place, but I'm talking about for the guys who are just coming in on their first fight where they're making 10 and 10.

I don't know if it went up to 12 and 12 yet, but when I came in, I made eight and eight.

Damn, you know, so 8,000 to show up, make weight, 8,000 to show up in the cage.

And then if I win, I would get that other 8,000.

So 8, and 8.

And then you have to pay your expenses or everything that you pay to get to the fight, flights for your extra coaches, because they typically only pay for one fighter, one coach, one hotel room.

So people that don't want to sleep on top of each other because they need a little bit of, you know, comfort, whatever, you want to be weird or do some other stuff in your corner and play Richard Johnson.

You get another room.

So you pay for another room.

You pay for another flight for your third.

And it adds up really, really quick.

So you're looking at eight and eight, and that's before taxes.

and that's before all your expenses to get to the fight.

Wow, you know, so it's been a grind, and like I said, growing up in New York, it's very expensive compared to most other fighters that live in other states.

And

again, I can only just chop it up to being blessed and

feeling like I've been highly favored, and I don't take that for granted.

So, hopefully, there's another belt in my future, and we can keep going from there.

I love it.

Sounds like you don't participate in semen retention leading up to the fights.

Do you think it's bullshit?

I think it's bullshit.

I've tried it.

I felt no difference.

I went off the rails.

I felt no difference.

So I said, okay, that's it, man.

Why am I going to cut myself short from having fun if

it's not really, I don't say not really, but it's not, at least for me, it's not affecting me.

It's probably a mental thing.

I think so, 100%.

I think the problem is if you're going out and you're staying up all night chasing tail.

You got a nice girl at home like I do.

I got a nice fiancé.

You know, I think it's a completely different thing.

I go home and I tech my fiancé soon to be wife.

I feel that.

That's the way to do it.

So if you ever have kids, which hopefully you do, would you ever let them get into fighting?

I would not let my kids fight unless I felt they were putting in the same work that I was putting in,

especially at 21.

When I was 21, I was in college, full-time college student.

I was coaching part-time

and I was training myself full-time, doing two sessions a day.

and I was a different beast back then compared to what I am now like now I'm more educated I'm more experienced so I know when to push push pull of course your body doesn't bounce back the way it does at 21 yeah but back then different

different animal just very inexperienced but different animal um you could throw hit this guy with a kitchen sink and he's bouncing right back at you right in your face you know so if i'm gonna have kids which i plan to um i got to make sure that they're having the same dedication that i had because

you don't play for fun in there.

You play for keeps.

You're talking your brain cells, you're talking longevity on the rest of your life.

And

I don't take that as a joking matter.

I know people make memes and they joke about stuff like, oh, that's why you got knocked out.

I'm like, yo, bro, we like, if you only understood what that felt like to be in that position and know like,

In the future,

everything could change and your quality of life can change based on this.

And then I know some people are going to say, Well, no one told you to fight, no one told you to do this.

Well, also, no one told you to work a boring-ass fucking nine-to-five job and never feel alive, and that's why you watch us at the end of the day.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, you watch us to come alive, you know.

So, when you're out there betting your money, you worked your 40-hour shift to hopefully get by

while we're out there trying to be gladiators to perform and put on a show for people who want entertainment.

You know, I think there's a respect factor that should be in the equation.

So again, come to my kids.

As long as they're putting in the right work, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it.

But I have family that fought and I tell them, like, dude, if you're not going to do the things that you see me doing, you know what it takes to get here.

Don't shortchange yourself.

Because at the end of the day, Again, this is not a joking matter.

You're playing with your brain cells and you're talking about your quality of life when you're an old man.

man, God willing, you make it to 50, 60, 70 years old.

You don't want to be the guy that's shaking and trembling and doing all these things and having to have people take care of you because you didn't do the right things.

And hopefully you made enough money where if you do get to that point, you can at least pay for it to take care of yourself.

So that's kind of the way I look at it.

So even my fiancé, here and now, we still talk about like retirement.

I ask her, like, if I were to retire hypothetically tomorrow, Yeah, how would you feel?

If I were to fight Movsar Evloev and retire after that even if I I was the next guy to fight for a belt and I retired How would you feel about that?

Because it's a real conversation and those are real thoughts that I have and

again I would rather be able to play with my kids and of course I accomplish what I need to accomplish right, you know, so I would rather be able to play with my kids and enjoy their life and teach them things that things that I didn't have the opportunity to learn from my parents or my dad and be a big part of their life while they grow.

No, I feel that, dude, because there's some fighters that stayed a little too long, I think, and you could see the damage now.

Some, a lot.

Right.

Boxers, too.

A lot.

And it's a sad truth, man, but it's one of those things.

And I know people say, no one told you to choose this life.

But again,

we

move towards our calling and

whatever you feel is for you is for you, you know?

So that's the way I look at it.

It's a lot of sports, too.

NFL.

Yeah.

Anything with contact.

Something to think about for sure.

But we don't get paid millions like those guys.

So hopefully, you know, these guys can, the pay will keep increasing.

I do think the UFC is

one of the highest paying promotions out there.

And hopefully things just keep getting better.

And I know we're not as old as boxing, but...

You know, I would love for one day to commentate and be able to see these guys getting paid hundreds of thousands, millions, and to be able to say I was a pioneer, one of the pioneers in that process while these guys were continuously growing the sport.

I love that.

So you're thinking about doing what DC did, transitioning into commentary.

I would love that.

I think if I were to just remove myself from the sport, it would be, at least this is what people tell me.

They tell me that it would be like,

what would you call it?

I can't think of the word.

Well, you would would know a lot about that.

It'd be a loss.

Yeah, it would be a loss of um, I don't want to say talent, but

a loss of insight

to what's actually going on.

Because I guess people, when they listen to my podcast, they feel like I do a great job of blending it and making people understand who were never trained what it's like or what the positions are happening and so they can understand what's actually going on.

You can simplify it so the common person can get what's going on.

Exactly.

Yeah, that's what we get.

I don't know if there's a word for that.

Well, cheers, brother.

That was fun.

Cheers.

Yeah, thanks for coming on.

See you guys soon.