Aljamain Sterling finds Aaron Picos claim about protecting ranking bizarre39

Aljamain Sterling wasn't pleased to hear what Aaron Pico had to say about him.

Sterling, a former UFC bantamweight champion and now a contender at featherweight, was accused by Pico of turning down fights and had his fighter mentality questioned because of it. Sterling admits he was caught off guard by the comments but didn't deny turning down Pico.

He did explain why a fight between the two just doesn't make sense for him.

"Aaron Pico called me out, and he basically said I'm a ranking merchant and just squatting on my ranking," Sterling said on his YouTube channel. "It's just fascinating because of three of my UFC fights, and I've had over 20-plus UFC fights, three guys were not ranked in the top 15, top 10, top five. It's just bizarre to me that he can say that when I don't control how often I get to fight because the UFC has me waiting.

"On top of that, I'm the only one who called out Movsar Evloev. I called for him to fight before he had an opportunity to fight for a world title after losing to Movsar in a very close fight. I then fought Brian Ortega, who was No. 5. After beating Ortega, I beat Yussef Zalal, who was on an eight-fight win streak, five in the UFC, and four of those wins in the UFC were finishes. Now I'm fighting another killer in Kevin Vallejos. I don't see where the squatting or the trying to protect rank? You have all these guys you can potentially fight. Why are you picking on me, bro?"

Sterling has one of the toughest schedules on the UFC roster. He's fought Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, T.J. Dillashaw, Sean O'Malley, Movsar Evloev, Cory Sandhagen, and many other notable names. Sterling is currently scheduled to fight next month against Kevin Vallejo, who's considered one of the hardest hitters at 145 pounds.

Pico quickly finished Losene Keita this past Saturday at UFC 333, putting him on a two-fight winning streak after losing his UFC debut by KO to Lerone Murphy in 2025.

Sterling said fighting Pico doesn't make sense for his career, at least at this point. He's determined to win his second divisional title, and fighting at Pico this time just doesn't get him to that goal.

"He lost to Lerone Muprhy in the first round in less than two minutes or three, whatever it was, that was his debut," Sterling said. "Then he came, and he beat (Patricio Freire) 'Pitbull' by decision. You beat 'Pitbull' by decision, who's a Bellator guy. You're now ranked 13, and you're trying to fight me, who's ranked four after I beat two guys – five and eight – and now you're asking why I don't want to fight a guy who's 1-1? Bro, I'm trying to go this way (up). If the UFC told me, 'You have to fight Pico, and you have a good performance against him, you can fight for the title,' OK, cool. Done. But that was not the case. After getting some clarity, this is the case, is not guaranteed, but if I have a good performance against Vallejos, I can potentially be next in line for that title. So here we are: I have Kevin Vallejos."

Sterling is not opposed to fighting Pico, should that fight make sense for him. He's not closed to the idea of the two fighting at some point in the future, but he just thinks their paths are not aligning at the moment.

"It has nothing to do fighting guys behind me; I don't care who I fight," Sterling said. "I just need to know that the direction I'm going is going to take me where I want to go. There's a destination to the game, and I know Pico knows that. So him trying to create a narrative that I'm avoiding him, or anyone is avoiding him, no. You came in, and you got flatlined by one guy, a decision maker like Movsar Evloev, and then you're trying to call shots like you've been killing the game the whole time. Bro, what are you talking about?"

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Aljamain Sterling finds Aaron Pico's claim about protecting ranking 'bizarre'