UFC bantamweight contender Aljamain Sterling has had a quick rise to the top. He got a fight with long-time contender Takeya Mizugaki in his third UFC fight back in April and passed the test with flying colors, winning with just the second arm triangle from guard in UFC history. He followed it up with another dominant submission win over another veteran contender when he defeated Johnny Eduardo last week, and that was the last fight of his UFC contract.
Sterling has expressed his desire to pursue free agency, but the UFC normally has an exclusive negotiation period. Today, Sterling announced via an Instagram post (which showed him dancing after tapping Eduardo) that the UFC has waived that exclusive window:
When the @UFC calls your manager and tells them you’re good to start shopping around as a #FreeAgentProspect.
#BiggestThreatToAny135Roster #5 th #Ranked #FreshPrinceofNY #HumanAnaconda #ufc #UFCRock #dab #undefeated #newyork
His manager, Malki Kawa of First Round Management, followed up with these tweets using the TMI.me extended tweet service:
Tweet #1:
??? you’ve lost your mind “@dannyrube: @GrabakaHitman @mookiealexander he will stay. UFC will pay him 24k/24k and that’s what FRM will take.”
Tweet #2:
Remember, FRM doesn’t take anything. Fighters do. And w Aljo looking at a big number, even if I wanted to it won’t happen. ??????”@dannyrube: @malkikawa @GrabakaHitman @mookiealexander guess we’ll see. ?”
