Aljamain Sterling isn’t ready to make his next title defense official until he gets an increase in pay.
Bantamweight champion Sterling (21-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) is coming off a title-unification win against Petr Yan at UFC 273 in April in which he left no doubt in the rematch with an upset.
Next in line for him is ex-champ T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 279 on Sept. 10, but Sterling has yet to sign the contract.
“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 YouTube channel.
That’s because Sterling is taking a stance. “The Funkmaster” revealed that he was paid $400,000 for his title defense against Yan, which typically wouldn’t include his share of pay-per-view buys. However, according to Sterling, he hasn’t seen the increase in pay that he’s looking for in his next fight.
“Usually, when it’s not a title fight, when you win a fight, there’s an escalator,” Sterling said. “There has been no escalator in this fight. I’d like to think that 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 will 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.”
Sterling isn’t saying he won’t fight Dillashaw (17-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC), but until he sits down with the UFC to negotiate, he’s not ready to sign the deal.
“For me, I want to make sure we get the deal right before we just jump into another fight,” Sterling said. “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. 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.”