Aljamain Sterling details why he hasn’t signed a contract to fight TJ Dillashaw, hopes for a “pay bump”: “There’s no fight until there’s ink on paper”

Aljamain Sterling says his title defense against TJ Dillashaw is not a done deal.

On late Wednesday night, it was reported that Sterling was set to fight Dillashaw at UFC 279 on September 10 at a location TBD. However, on Thursday he took to his YouTube channel to reveal he hasn’t signed his contract and is holding out for more money.

“There’s no fight until there’s ink on paper, and as of right now, my contract is exactly the same. Usually, when it’s not a title fight when you win a fight, there is an escalator (of pay),” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “There has been no escalator in this fight. I’d like to think I played my part, did the right things, and even allowed myself to be the bad guy in the last outing with Petr Yan, and help play up the storyline. So one would think that being a company man would actually help you in the long run. So I did my job, as of right now, I’m training, hoping that we come to some type of agreement to give some type of pay bump which naturally happens in all the contracts.”

The hope for Aljamain Sterling is he and his team can sit down with the UFC and get a new deal done before the fight is made official.

As well, Sterling wants to know the location of the event before he signs as he says that is crucial for him. But, he believes after everything he has done for the company, he deserved to be paid more.

“I want to make sure we get the deal right before we just jump into another fight, because at the end of the day, I climbed through the ranks, I worked my ass off, and I played my position in terms of helping to promote the fights, which a lot of these guys don’t even do. I’m here to be a company man, and at the same time, I want to look out for my best interests. There’s a fine line where there’s a balance where getting both of those done can happen. Hopefully, we can sit down and figure this out.”