Twelve years and two weeks ago, Aljamain Sterling was just a 21-year-old collegiate wrestling standout looking to win his mixed martial arts debut at a little hockey venue in Morristown, N.J.
“It was in the middle of nowhere. It was in an ice rink. It was really cold,” Sterling, speaking with The Post on Wednesday from the Hyatt Regency Morristown, recalled from his April 22, 2011, debut victory at Mennen Arena. “I had a lot of my friends and family that are coming out for this that were out for that one as well.
“And it just reminds me of where I came from to where I am now, and that makes me appreciate everything that much more.”
Wednesday the UFC bantamweight champion was back in town, prepping for a much bigger fight on a far greater stage — and at a more prestigious New Jersey hockey arena.
Sterling (22-3, 11 finishes) will put his championship on the line for the third time in Saturday’s UFC 288 main event at Prudential Center in Newark, against former two-division champion Henry Cejudo.
A victory over former Olympic freestyle wrestling champion Cejudo (16-2, eight finishes), returning after three years in retirement, would not only merit Sterling the record for most consecutive UFC title defenses at bantamweight — he’s currently tied for the lead at two — but it would give the Long Island native victories over four of the other six men to have held the UFC 135-pound belt.
“It’s a lot, man. It’s cool to see that,” said Sterling, processing the feat he could accomplish this weekend. “Just understanding the journey, the process of what it takes to get here and some of the cool things we accomplish along the way. … This is this is another big one, another big test, another big opportunity, and I look forward to passing that exam on Saturday.”
As the gaze of the 33-year-old Longo and Weidman MMA fighter stares down Cejudo and the prospect of history, Sterling has been open about his upcoming goals to cement his legacy in the sport.
The rough plan is to pick up the win this weekend, defend his crown once more against rising star Sean O’Malley, followed by an attempt at holding both the 135- and 145-pound division titles simultaneously.
“We’ll see how everything shakes up first, but that will be the idea behind it: to try to enter that realm of being the champ-champ,” Sterling said. “I know it’s gonna be tough. You can’t really defend both, especially for me. That’s hard to go up and down [in weight], especially if I’m gonna do it the right way, put the size on. So we’ll see what happens after this fight. I just take it one fight at a time. I try not to count my chickens before they hatch.”
Sterling would prefer to fight as much as twice more by the end of the year to knock out that goal within 2023, but he understands the reality of UFC champions is that their titles aren’t typically put on the line in such rapid-fire succession.
Two more title fights in seven months may not be in the cards.
Can’t blame him for being optimistic, though, especially since Sterling last competed in October when he pounded out ex-champ T.J. Dillashaw in the second round.
That was more than seven months ago.
“We try to be as active as we can because the more we compete, the more money we get to make, so why wouldn’t I want to make as much as I can?” Sterling said. “Hopefully, [I] could be more active, get back to how I used to be fighting, four times a year. … I’ve been keeping up with two a year. If I could do three, that’d be ideal.”