In the Pocket With Aljamain Sterling
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
The desired effect is what you get when you improve your Interplanetary Funksmanship
- George Clinton
Aljamain Sterling has been a mainstay of the UFC bantamweight division since 2014, but it’s only in the past few years and most especially in his last two performances, big wins over top contenders Jimmy Rivera and Pedro Munhoz, that he’s established himself as one of the most dangerous challengers to Henry Cejudo’s incipient title reign. Sterling has always been physically talented and has brought an eclectic mix of skills to the cage, but that same variety has meant that it took a long time for his game to coalesce into the complete style he’s displayed in his last few outings. So what does Sterling do well, and how has that changed over the years? What about his development has pushed him from being a dangerous but mercurial mid top-10 guy to title challenger? To answer those questions we’ll take a look back at his last several fights and talk about the skills he’s always had, the ones he’s recently added, and how those additions have amplified his existing arsenal.
Climbing the Ladder
Sterling entered the UFC with a perfect 8-0 record assembled on the tough New York/New England regional scene. He made his bones off the strength of his wrestling and submission game. Sterling was a 2x D3 All American at SUNY-Cortland, and his scrambling, mat wrestling oriented style (the ‘Funkmaster’ nickname is a reference to his wrestling style, presumably the sweet high top fade came later) was a good fit for MMA. Aljo has always had a knack for taking the back, with 4 of his first 8 wins coming by RNC. In addition to his grappling Sterling showed an early preference for kicking, perhaps due to his long frame or maybe from training alongside Jon Jones (a fighter to whom he is frequently but in my mind erroneously compared). This combination, kicking on the outside and bridging the gap with shots into the clinch, would carry him throughout his early UFC career as he picked up four wins before running into Bryan Caraway.
The Caraway fight was closely contested but it also showed some of the limits of Sterling’s early style. While not especially athletic, Caraway was tough, experienced, and perhaps most difficult for Sterling to deal with he was also an excellent grappler, one of the best in the division. Sterling dominated the first round, but when Caraway came out for the second feinting and pressuring Aljo looked less confident on the feet. While he still hit Caraway with some very solid shots, he also reacted to almost every feint and punch by jumping backwards several feet allowing Caraway to put him on the fence. In both the second and third rounds Caraway was able to use this strategy to clinch up, grind out the TD, and steal the round.
Caraway feints causing Sterling to hop backwards. A looping little hook gets Aljo all the way to the cage wall. Caraway immediately shoots and ties up for what would be a round winning takedown and minutes of ground control.
It’s worth noting that this fight was a split decision win for Caraway and could easily have been a draw had the judges granted Sterling the 10-8 first round which he probably deserved; regardless of the outcome it stands as a good example of what Aljo did well and what he did poorly at this stage of his career. The kicks were there (Sterling battered Caraway’s legs throughout the fight), the grappling was mostly on point as Aljo almost finished from the back in the first, but at the same time the lack of pocket boxing and a defense based mostly on jumping straight back combined to hurt Sterling’s chances in the later rounds. Aljo’s relative weakness in boxing came back to bite him in another closely contested loss, this one against perennial bantamweight spoiler Rafael Assuncao. Sterling carved the Brazilian up with kicks in the first round, but by the second the dangerous counter striker had picked up Sterling’s timing and was starting to catch and counter his naked kicks.
Aljo throws a low kick with his hands down. Assuncao, having been hit with several similar kicks in the first round, is ready with a counter right hand stumbling Sterling.
‘Naked’ kicking refers to kicking without any setup, most often used in the context of throwing kicks without first feinting or throwing punches. At this point in his career Sterling’s boxing and kicking were not tightly integrated, and many of the kicks he threw had little in the way of preparation. The variety in his kicking game meant that this worked pretty well in the first round, but once his opponents started to get a read on him fewer and fewer of his kicks landed as the fights went on.
Deficiencies in his boxing aside, Sterling was a highly ranked fighter for a reason. As previously mentioned he’s always had a knack for taking the back and finishing even very crafty opponents from that position. Much of his wrestling is aimed not at getting clean takedowns off his initial shot, but rather getting into the clinch up against the cage. From that position Aljo prefers to do a version of a slide by and go straight to his man’s back.
Here against Tiger Schulmann product Jimmy Rivera Aljo shows how his wrestling normally works in the cage. Being a rangy fighter who prefers to kick, Sterling often has to cover a lot of distance on the shot. As such he infrequently gets in on his opponents’ hips for a clean takedown. Instead it’s much more common for him to attach on a single, drive to the cage, and come up to the clinch.
In against former champion Renan Barao Sterling shows how dangerous his grinding clinch wrestling game can be combined with his excellent back takes. Having clinched up against the fence Aljo is able to take an angle to the side and break Barao down to the mat. The Funkmaster immediately throws in a hook and clambers onto Bat Boy’s back, a position he’d retain for most of the round.
Sterling is not only good when he’s on the back, he’s a smooth top grappler when he does end up on the mat, often ending up in the superior position at the end of scrambles as befits a funk wrestling specialist.
On top of Cody Stamann after a scramble Sterling secures the hips and quickly moves from half guard to side control. As Stamann creates space with a bridge attempt Aljo moves immediately to mount. The Spartan turns to start building up his base giving Sterling his back.
Aljo’s scrambling style does mean he can occasionally lose position, but his creativity in finishing more than makes up for it.
As Stamann builds up his base Sterling eschews attacking the neck and instead shoots an arm through to Stamann’s leg hitting a rare Suloev stretch submission. Only the bizarre coincidence of Zabit Magomedsharipov hitting the same seldom seen sub higher up the card on the same night kept $50,000 of Submission of the Night money out of Aljo’s pocket.
So having emerged in the UFC as a diverse kicker with a lights out submission game but held back by a one-note approach on the feet, how did Sterling’s game change to push him to the top of the ultra-competitive bantamweight division? As it turned out, the Funkmaster just needed to find his rhythm.
Hustle and Flow
Aljamain Sterling didn’t learn how to strike overnight. It’s been a progression that can be seen over time as punching in combination, feinting, and angular defensive footwork have shown up more and more frequently in his fights. It’s really only in his last two fights, especially his last outing against dangerous striker Pedro Munhoz, where the crystallization of years of work becomes apparent. What is Aljo doing differently? For the first time in his career he looks genuinely comfortable hanging out in the pocket, moving his head and feet without jumping out of distance whenever he feel threatened, punching off the kick, and playing with range to pull his opponent onto his attacks. He’s not a perfect striker by any means; the way he’s starting to play with stance switching has the potential to get him in trouble (and did against Marlon Moraes), but his game has a coherence and flow that sets him apart from a crowded field at bantamweight.
Boxing
The double entendre of the title shows up most in punching range. In music, being ‘in the pocket’ means a rhythm section playing perfectly in sync, swinging just ahead or behind the beat as the song requires. In boxing ‘the pocket’ is the range where both fighters can punch each other but are not so close that they can stifle each others’ shots with arm and shoulder pressure (that would be the clinch). Sterling has always moved his head, but in the past the movements were large and often disconnected from what his hands were doing. He also didn’t move his head much while he was throwing meaning it was hard for him to exchange safely in the pocket. In the Munhoz fight Aljo unveiled beautifully combined offense and defense, staying in close against his swarming opponent landing repeatedly while taking little damage himself. It’s clear in these exchanges that Aljo has figured out the rhythm of exchange in punching range and feels that he can stay in throwing even with a hitter like the Young Punisher. It’s also a good example of how Sterling has started more consistently ‘closing the door’ (throwing a quick shot, usually a jab, after his power to cover his exit). As will be discussed in the next section on punching off the kick, crafty fighters will often wait for a fighter’s offense to ‘run out’ and then look to enter with counters. Closing the door prevents that by filling the space between the end of one attack a fighter’s return to a safe distance.
Near the end of the first Munhoz manages to work his way into the pocket. Instead of exiting towards the fence, Aljo slips the jab and returns with a 3-2. Munhoz fires back with a 1-1-2, but hits only air as Sterling keeps his head moving landing a glancing hook over the top before angling back and landing another hook on the way out.
When Aljo does slide away from an attack, he’s much less likely to move himself out of range than to pull just far enough to defuse the punch or kick. Because he has a range edge on most of his opponents this leaves him free to fire back.
Aljo at range just touching Rivera with quick kicks and playing with lead hand contact. Sterling’s touches give the illusion of a chance to enter and Rivera steps in with a cross. The Funkmaster slides just out of range and throws a cross which Rivera slips. When Jimmy ducks in looking for another shot Aljo retreats again, but just enough to maintain the distance.
Exchanges like this don’t look like much, but the way in which Sterling has learned to shorten his retreats means that he’s much harder to push into the cage than he was earlier in his career. That in turn leads to less panic circling when he feels his back on the cage and correspondingly fewer easy shots for his opponent.
Sterling’s punching form can still get a bit loopy, but he’s improved a great deal at using his jab to control the pace and range of the fight. Combined with his newfound comfort in the pocket his boxing is a weapon in a way it’s never been before. In addition to punching in combination, Sterling has also started routinely following up his kicks with punches. This may not seem like a huge adjustment, but it opens up Sterling’s kicking game immensely because it means that his opponents can’t run in with counters
Punching Off the Kick
‘Punching off the kick’ refers simply to throwing punches as or just after a fighter’s kick lands. The leg is a big and comparatively slow weapon and once an opponent gets your timing down they can often block or parry a kick and counter effectively while you’re resetting. This is something that has bedeviled Sterling in the past, most notably against Assuncao. The easiest way to deal with the threat of the counter (other than setting up your kicks better in the first place, which Aljo has also started doing with his improved boxing) is to throw something out after the kick.
Against Jimmy Rivera Aljo is pressuring nicely, again playing with lead hand touches. The open stance matchup makes the rear kick the go-to weapon, and Sterling duly throws a front kick, feints, and throws another one pulling slightly and hitting Rivera with a jab as Jimmy comes in looking to counter.
In addition to punching off the kick, Sterling has shown a lot of facility dealing with his opponents’ kicking games. If you’re going to be a kicker and hang out in kicking range, sooner or later your man is going to start throwing kicks back and you need to be ready to deal with it. Perdo Munhoz was not content to cede kicking range to the Funkmaster, but almost every time he entered with a kick Sterling was able to make him pay.
Munhoz misses with a big right hand and follows up with a front kick which Aljo parries, immediately landing a stinging jab. After a short stance switch and body jab Sterling returns to southpaw. Munhoz tries the front kick again this time eating a pair of hooks for his trouble.
A Work in Progress
It’s hard to overstate what a difference these changes have made in Sterling’s game, specifically his ability to adapt to opposing styles. If past opponents could stymie him at kick range and stall out in the clinch they had a good chance of winning the fight at punching distance, with Aljo’s big retreats making him look overly tentative. 3 years ago it’s likely he wouldn’t have won the fight against Pedro Munhoz and possibly not the fight with Jimmy Rivera either as both are effective counter punchers with good anti-wrestling (Sterling was consistently stuffed on the shot against Munhoz). Those fights could have gone the same way as the Assuncao fight with Sterling losing a narrow decision in a relatively dull affair. Instead Sterling was able to frustrate and hurt both opponents with a constant barrage of punches and kicks, mixing up rhythm and re-countering their attempts to impose a cost on his volume. Still, even as the years of hard work with Ray Longo are starting to bear fruit in the striking, it’s not been a totally smooth transition.
The biggest thing that remains to be cleaned up is Aljo’s stance. It’s somewhat ironic that as Sterling has gotten more comfortable striking his stance has in some ways gotten worse, mostly because he’s less rigid about staying in stance and less wary when he does switch stances in space. In wrestling stance switches are common, and you’ll see a lot of wrestlers switch stance somewhat reflexively (Dominick Cruz’s famous switching footwork, for example, is derived mostly from his wrestling background). In striking sports however stance switching is much less common and is typically not something fighters do much of until they’ve reached a high level of technical skill. The reason is that while it’s fairly easy to pick up offense in your non-natural stance, it takes a long time to bring your defense up to par and as such a fighter is extra vulnerable in his off stance. In addition the act of switching itself carries inherent risk because it involves squaring your stance as you move from orthodox to southpaw or vice versa. A squared fighter has greatly diminished ability to either deliver or take punishment. A lot of the ‘angles’ you hear about on UFC commentary are designed, basically, to get to a position where your opponent is square relative to you so that you can throw hard without worrying too much about the counter, and where your opponent’s centerline is there to be hit. If you switch stances too often without proper preparation a savvy opponent will eventually start taking advantage This happened to Aljo prior to his being brutally KOed against Marlon Moraes.
Moraes rushes in with an uppercut. Rather than angle out to defuse the blitz, Sterling steps back switching his stance. By putting himself out of position in this way Aljo is unable to eat Moraes’s follow up left hook and gets toppled to the mat.
Not being disciplined about stance also makes a fighter much more vulnerable to leg kicks. To deal with leg kicks a fighter generally wants to do one of three things: check it (block with your own shin), eat the kick but return fire with punches as the kick is thrown or immediately thereafter, or try to time the kick and catch it into a takedown. All three of those require that a fighter be in a stable stance, and if he’s not then leg kicks will start off balancing and turning him.
Pressed near the fence late in the third against Munhoz Sterling gets a little lazy with his stance both off his own kicks and switching in space. Munhoz takes advantage with a series of hard low kicks. Aljo checks the first, but the second and third visibly affect his balance as he’s not in position to check or eat the kicks effectively.
All things considered however, these are minor growing pains and the improvements in Sterling’s improved effectiveness on the feet far outweighs any emerging deficiencies in his new style.
What’s Next?
On the bench with injuries the latter half of 2019, Sterling has indicated that he’s now ready to return to the octagon. The logical next step after his string of strong victories would be a title fight with Henry Cejudo, though the time table for Cejudo’s return from a shoulder injury is a little unclear (and even then, which weight class he chooses to return to is up in the air). As such, this author would love to see Sterling step into the cage against either of the other up and coming bantamweight contenders: Corey Sandhagen and Petr Yan. While in the past I might have worried about Sterling’s ability to deal with Yan’s boxing or Sandhagen’s length and active lead hand, with his recent improvements those seem like nothing more than additional facets of interesting style matchups. With Yan getting what should be an easy layup against Urijah Faber at UFC 245 and Sandhagen’s next opponent to be determined with Frankie Edgar stepping in to face the Korean Zombie on December 21st the ideal matchup would be Sterling vs Sandhagen sometime early next year. The winner would either fight Yan for an interim title or Cejudo for the genuine strap if he’s able to return by mid 2020. In any case, there are no bad matchups at the top of bantamweight and with his recent show of form it would be hard to definitively favor any of the other top men against the surging Aljamain Sterling.