Aljamain Sterling is open to fighting training partner Merab Dvalishvili if the UFC offers up “NFL money”

Aljamain Sterling is open to fighting training partner Merab Dvalishvili if the UFC offers up ‘NFL money’.

Sterling (22-3 MMA) is currently on an eight-fight winning streak, his latest victory coming via TKO against T.J. Dillashaw (17-5 MMA) in October of last year at UFC 280.

The current UFC bantamweight champion is scheduled to fight Henry Cejudo (16-2 MMA) on May 6th at UFC 288 which takes place at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey.

Sterling sat down with Robbie Fox on a recent edition of ‘My Mom’s Basement’ and discussed the possibility of fighting his close friend and teammate Merab Dvalishvili (h/t MMANews):

“I mean it’s his business, so I know for him he’s gonna try to make the matchups that the fans wanna see. I know the fans would love to see that. Dude, we do more than enough in the room with each other already. You know, Merab’s a great dude. He would take his shirt off for anybody, he doesn’t even have to know you, you know? He’s just that type of a guy. To have that relationship with him and to throw it away for, 500K? You know what I mean?”

When asked if Sterling and Dvalishvili had ever discussed fighting a competitive (but still friendly) match, ‘Funk Master’ said:

“No, we never talked about that. And for us to fight for that kind of money just doesn’t make a ton of sense. Now if we were talking like NFL money, money that can actually – these guys make $50 million for like one or two years, you know what I mean? That’s life changing…You see what I’m saying? It’s just like why would we ever cross that type of line to do something that’s not even gonna last us – that’s something that could set us up financially for the rest of our lives. And that’s just not worth it for me.”

Merab Dvalishvili (16-4 MMA) is hot off a unanimous decision victory over Petr Yan (16-5 MMA) this past Saturday, March 11th, bringing his current winning streak to 9 in a row.

Would you like to see Sterling and Dvalishvili battle it out in the Octagon?

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