It was announced recently that Aljamain Sterling would be defending his bantamweight title against TJ Dillashaw at UFC 279. However, it doesn't appear the bantamweight champion is in agreement with the announcement.
Aljamain Sterling quickly spoke out on the fight announcement and denied that he would be fighting TJ Dillashaw at UFC 279. The champion claims no contracts have been signed between the two.
“There’s no fight until there’s ink on paper, and as of right now, my contract is exactly the same,” Sterling said on his official YouTube channel. (MMAFighting)
“There has been no escalator in this fight,” Sterling said. “I’d like to think I played my part, did the right things, and even allowed myself to be the bad guy in the last outing with Petr Yan, and help play up the storyline.
“So one would think that being a company man would actually help you in the long run. So I did my job – as of right now, I’m training, hoping that we come to some type of agreement to give some type of pay bump which naturally happens in all the contracts.”
Aljamain Sterling is not ready to sign a contract to fight TJ Dillashaw until the UFC has upgraded his contract. The promotion normally offers a pay bump for champions before their first title defense.
“For me, I want to make sure we get the deal right before we just jump into another fight, because at the end of the day, I climbed through the ranks, I worked my ass off, and I played my position in terms of helping to promote the fights, which a lot of these guys don’t even do,” he said. “I’m here to be a company man, and at the same time, I want to look out for my best interests. There’s a fine line where there’s a balance where getting both of those done can happen.”
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