“I literally would, one week before every fight. I would go out and I would get blacked out wasted. And my logic was, if this guy were to beat me somehow, I can look myself in the mirror and say, the reason I lost is because I got hammered the week before the fight.” Back in 2016, Jon Jones told Joe Rogan all about this pre-fight ritual of his. Of course, he admitted that it was stupid. But it was also a mental crutch for him. And following in the heavyweight champion’s footsteps, came Aljamain Sterling, with a similar problem. 

During a recent conversation with Ariel Helwani, the former bantamweight champion revealed how much he liked to drink. Well, if he brings a drink to the training camps, he must love doing it. But he keeps himself in check. He doesn’t really get wasted, like Jones claimed to do himself. This pushed Helwani to wonder what the appropriate amount of alcohol that Sterling thought was safe to consume. 

‘Funk Master’ replied, “I’ll have like one or two, if I’m in fight camp. And I’ll go clean like I’m trying to get in shape. Once I’m in shape and I have like a good sparring, like I had a really good week, and then the next week maybe I hit the pinnacle where like, okay, I can crush three 5s, or five 5s, no problem. I’m like, I’ve earned a drink or two. And it’s usually in my house.” But what about the timeline before a fight?

Jones drank one week before his bouts. So, does that mean Sterling followed a similar suit? Not really! He claimed, “I drink all the way up to a fight. And again, it’s one or two drinks.” And unlike Jones, it wasn’t something that he did to build an excuse for losing a bout. 

Sterling continued, “It’s like if you lose the fight because of one or two drinks, you probably were gonna lose the fight anyway, right? But usually after the weigh-ins, we go like, do a team dinner. If I get to, like now that I have this, I’ll bring this and we’ll just do like a open cork fee and I’ll have like a shot on the rocks. Just nice and easy. And just puts me to sleep. I’ve been doing that for years now at this point. And it’s always made me feel good. I slept better. I sleep better. And I don’t know. It’s just like I said, it’s something I enjoy.” 

Soon, Ariel Helwani shared the conversation with his audience on X. And as expected, the fighting community had more than a few things to say.

Is Aljamain Sterling fooling himself with fight camp drinking claims? 

It didn’t take long for the fans to connect the dots between Sterling’s habit and that of the heavyweight champion. One fan claimed, “Look at Bones Jones, it works !” Jones may be a champion with just a single loss in his professional record. Regardless, many fans discouraged the habit. One fan wrote, “I’m a fan of Aljo, but this is a prime example of someone gaslighting themselves and trying to rationalize their actions. Drinking alcohol leading up to a fight is one of the worst things you can do to your body. It affects everything from recovery to mental clarity.” Another fan added, “Love aljo but alcohol is horrible for your body and brain …”

Some of the fans even decided to bring in his failed bantamweight title defense against Sean O’Malley. One fan reflected on the second-round KO from August 2023 and wrote, “Alcohol makes you lose consciousness just that much easier when clipped by O’Malley.” Another fan pointed at O’Malley’s decision to quit smoking after he lost the belt at UFC 306. The comment read, “Dudes a f—— alcoholic… he needs to take a note or two from his daddy omalley.” And it’s not just O’Malley. His idol Conor McGregor, too, has claimed he puts down the bottle during fight camps, although he parties hard outside of it.

Meanwhile, one fan decided to reflect on Al Iaquinta’s suggestion. ‘Raging’ recently suggested that the UFC should promote personalities like Merab Dvalishvili more than ‘Suga’. And the reason was the Georgian champ’s abstinence from smoking and drinking. The comment read, “Interesting. Bc his boyfriend Al Iaquinta was saying how the UFC should push Merab more bc he doesn’t smoke or drink like O’Malley lol. F—— ge-d.”

Nevertheless, a few fans stood with the former bantamweight champion and claimed, “The Champ does what he wants.” But this wasn’t the first time Sterling made such quotes. He said the exact same thing in a previous conversation with Demetrious Johnson. And one fan pointed this out as he wrote, “How many times does he spam this quote.” But according to Sterling, such things in moderation shouldn’t really be considered taboo. Is he right?