Sterling can probably hear the footsteps.
The longtime
Serra-Longo Fight Team rep will guard his ground as a Top 5
featherweight in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship when he meets Youssef
Zalal in the
UFC Fight Night 274 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in
Las Vegas. Sterling climbs into the Octagon as a slight underdog
against the hard-charging Marc Montoya protégé. Even so, he appears
to have multiple paths to victory ahead of his latest high-profile
endeavor. A look at three reasons why Sterling beats Zalal in the
UFC’s return to Sin City:
Experience
Sterling has been a staple of the UFC roster since Barack Obama was
in the White House. He debuted with the company in February 2014,
when Zalal was still a teenager. Sterling has accumulated almost
twice as many fights in the UFC (22) as his Moroccan counterpart
(12). Perhaps more importantly, he has fought beyond the third
round five times and gone the full 25 minutes on four different
occasions. By comparison, Zalal has never had to push past three
rounds. Sterling has also piled up 84 rounds as a pro—31 more than
“The Moroccan Devil,” or the equivalent of 10 bouts. Those
callouses and guile add another layer to the “Funk Master” package.
Sterling owns a 13-3 mark in bouts that reach the judge, while
Zalal sports a 4-5 record in such fights.
Wrestling
Sterling starred in the singlet at Uniondale High School and went
on to enjoy a successful collegiate career at Morrisville State
College and the State University of New York at Cortland, where he
was a two-time NCAA All-American at the Division III level,
compiled an 87-27 record and twice finished in the Top 10
nationally. Those skills served him well in his transition to mixed
martial arts and ultimately paved the way to a standout tenure in
the UFC. Sterling has completed a total of 50 takedowns across his
22 appearances inside the Octagon, registering multiple takedowns
in 13 of those outings—three of them against Henry
Cejudo, a former Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling.
Half of Zalal’s opponents in the UFC have taken him down, few of
them with Sterling’s credentials.
Pedigree
Sterling understands what it takes to reach the top of the
mountain. In addition to his near-900-day reign atop the UFC
bantamweight division, he has captured titles in the Ring of
Combat and
Cage Fury Fighting Championships organizations. Zalal,
meanwhile, has never struck gold. Sterling has also tested himself
against many of his most accomplished contemporaries. He has fought
five current or former UFC champions and holds a 5-1 record against
them, having defeated Petr Yan
twice.