Jamaica’s UFC ‘Funk Master’ Sterling defends title

UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain 'Funk Master' Sterling will return from Dubai following his breathtakingly dominant performance against rival TJ Dillashaw to successfully defend his title.

Sterling, 33, wasted little time in the fight as he secured a second-round TKO as Dillashaw, who admitted to entering the fight with a shoulder injury, suffered a dislocated left shoulder less than 20 seconds in the fight.

Sterling dismissed the pre-fight injury.

"You have to find an excuse to use after you (TJ Dillashaw) got dominated the way you got dominated. He must have thought he was that good, so I had to prove that he's not as good as he thinks he is and it's just not his time anymore.

"You could have given a guy octopus-like arms, he still would have trouble with me because anybody I take to the ground that's the same fate that they would get," said Sterling.

With the victory, Sterling, who is quickly becoming a must-see-TV fighter, has improved his record to 22 wins from 25 fights, with his last defeat coming back in 2017 to Marlon Moraes.

Sterling admitted that last Saturday his objective was achieved.

"The plan was to submit him. I put that on my year-end goal sheet that I wanted to submit him in the second round. I feel like I've been in this division for a very long time and since my third UFC fight, all of my other fights have been against fighters ranked in the top 15.

"I think now my resume speaks for itself. I've fought the toughest competition you could put in front of me and I'm going to keep my name in history books," Sterling added.

The tough-talking champion is currently tied second for most wins in the bantamweight division that he feels is stacked with top fighters. For now, rather than thinking about his next opponent, Sterling feels that recovering from this fight is his best option.

"They're no shortages of fighters right now, but I'm going to let the dust settle a little bit and let my body heal up. Maybe in the next two weeks I'll start to look at the landscape and see where everything is and start to look at my year-end goals, along with the obstacles and challenges that I would want to overcome for the next outing," he suggested.