Digital Social Hour - UFC Champ Reveals: Mental Warfare in Business & MMA | Aljamain Sterling DSH #991
Episode Date: December 18, 2024Step into the mind of a UFC champion as we explore the brutal reality of mental warfare in both the octagon and business world! 🥊 Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling opens up about t...he hidden psychological battles that shape success in combat sports and beyond. Experience raw, unfiltered insights as Sterling shares his journey from natural talent to championship greatness through relentless work ethic. Learn how champions think differently, train smarter, and prepare for both physical and mental warfare at the highest level. Get an insider's look at the business side of fighting, including the harsh economic realities fighters face, prize money comparisons with boxing, and the true cost of pursuing greatness in combat sports. Sterling also reveals his thoughts on retirement planning, legacy building, and his potential future in commentary. Whether you're an aspiring fighter, business professional, or success-minded individual, this conversation delivers powerful lessons about mental preparation, self-awareness, and the price of greatness. Watch as Sterling breaks down the real differences between winning and entertaining, and why understanding your weaknesses might be your greatest strength. Join the Digital Social Hour for this eye-opening discussion about what it really takes to become a champion in both life and sport. 🏆 #selfimprovement #ufcembedded #ufc #motivation #mentorship CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:32 - Aljamain's Poker Bust 01:38 - Upcoming Fights 04:19 - Toughest Fight 05:01 - BetterHelp 06:50 - Mind Games in Fighting 08:47 - Fighter's Moral Dilemma 11:35 - Boxing vs MMA Pay Disparities 14:05 - Parenting and Fighting 16:50 - Retirement in Combat Sports 18:40 - Aljamain Sterling’s Commentary Career 19:24 - Outro APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: jenna@digitalsocialhour.com GUEST: Aljamain Sterling https://www.instagram.com/funkmastermma https://www.youtube.com/@FunkMasterUFC SPONSORS: BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
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did you have I guess? I feel like I did naturally have a good IQ over most people in terms of combat,
but naturally I feel like I above the pack I was kind of solid at coming out of the gate yeah yeah so that's your work ethic
is what took you to that champ yeah everything is work ethic man like
everyone could throw punches everyone could throw knees everyone could throw
kicks but it's about how you train how you prepare yourself and get ready for
the mental and physical warfare all right guys got Al Jermaine Sterling here got his liquor brand and we're at the CPT here you just busted out right?
Damn that sounds crazy when you say it like that
I thought I was gonna make it to the final table, but I did it did not make it to the final table
Was it a bad beat or were you outplayed?
I was
Outlucked by Cardell Jones for the,
I think maybe the fourth time on the table.
I think I had him beat until he beat me, pause,
on the river three times in a row,
and then the fourth one sent me home.
Damn.
So just imagine that.
Like I just didn't, I kept slow rolling him
and everybody else, and then he just kept catching it on the river every single time.
Like dude, this is absurd luck.
Yeah.
Like percentages, it's just crazy.
That shouldn't happen.
Yeah.
Are you big on poker?
You play outside of this?
No.
Just this?
Just this.
Otherwise, I would have bet heavy on the first, on the river.
And then hopefully, not the river, the flop.
Right.
I would have bet heavy on the flop.
And then maybe I would have scared him off.
But unfortunately I slow rolled him and
then he just stuck around long enough to win the hand.
I feel that, damn man, shit.
Cold blooded.
Shit happens.
Any fights coming up?
October 5th, Salt Lake City, UFC 307 is going down.
Taking on Mosar, even the liver.
And I can't wait to take that off.
Let's go.
Also, your teammate, Marab, has got a fight coming up.
He's fighting for the belt, right?
Yeah.
What's it like being able to be in his corner for that fight?
Just like every other fight.
I try to remind them, this is just like everything else.
Just be you, take your time.
And if I can give you any type of advice, do not rush in and then lay an egg in the middle
of rushing in and then realize
that you're about to get clapped.
No diddy.
So just don't make those mistakes.
And I think it'd be a good night for us.
Boom.
Especially for him.
Yeah.
When you were first starting out,
were you just really good at first or did you have
like how much natural talent did you have I guess?
I mean for wrestling wise I feel like I did naturally have a good IQ over most people in terms of combat
but of course it takes time to develop that and you start to learn more tricks and things and
As you train more but naturally I feel like I above the pack, I was kind of solid at coming out of the gate.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then your work ethic is what took you to that champ level.
Yeah.
Everything is work ethic, man.
Everyone could throw punches.
Everyone could throw knees.
Everyone could throw kicks.
But it's about how you train, how you prepare yourself,
and get ready for the mental and physical warfare.
Right.
So you're friends with a lot of the champions.
Do you see any similarities in all their training and all
that?
I would say so.
I think the main thing is knowing what you need to do
versus having someone always telling you.
It's one thing to have your coaches there
that can kind of let you know and guide you,
but it's another thing to kind of have
an idea of what you should do and where you should be at.
I've always been very, I don't want to say self-trained,
but for the most part, kind of like dictating
how my camp should go, what I need to work on,
because I'm honest with the things I need to work on.
I know I need to work on my striking.
I know I need to get better in these other avenues,
but for the most part, I know how to prepare to win
with the tools that I have that I was blessed with.
Right. That's good that you know your weaknesses because some people won't acknowledge that,
right? And that's their weakness. 100%. And that's the problem. If you can't be real to yourself,
then how are you going to go out there and win time and time again? Right. Because each fight is
so different, right? Yes. You're training for a whole new fight. Yep. 100%. Each one comes with
a new puzzle, a new riddle you got to try to solve.
And hopefully you do your best trying to leave no stones unturned and
get ready for that math equation and hopefully you have the answers.
Absolutely.
Who's been your toughest fight so far?
Toughest fight in terms of competing the whole fight,
I would say Pedro Munoz because for that fight,
I actually tore my scaphoid lunate ligament
probably in 2015.
I fought him in 2019 and it got progressively worse.
So by time that fight came along, I couldn't really rely on my wrestling.
So I shot a couple of times, but he just kind of stuffed the takedowns.
But I kind of knew going into it, like I'm going to have to use this to blanket what
I'm trying to do
Which is score some points. He's not gonna quit. I know I wasn't a knockout fighter
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is going to love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM is your hockey home
for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a
selly, and an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League. BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a celly, and an official sports betting partner of the National
Hockey League.
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Like I wasn't hitting knockout punches,
one punch knockout, things like that.
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I knew Pedro wasn't going to walk into a shot for me to knock him out like that.
So I knew I had to be ready for 15 minutes and that was probably my most
action packed fun fight for 15 minutes straight. Just nonstop action.
I think we actually set the record for being away strikes in 15 minutes. Wow.
So you were gassed by the end of that one. I was shot.
I was shot.
I didn't have no chance to just take him down and rest.
It was constant action the entire time.
And I felt like that fight made me come out
the other side a better fighter.
So that was like a stamina fight,
like who could last longer, right?
Oh, 100%.
You guys were both trying to tire each other out
playing like a mind game, right?
And that's the side of the fight people don't see,
the mind game.
Yeah. Mind games are very
a very big part of uh competing you could do all the physical stuff but if your mind is not in the
in the right place and i kind of remind myself of the i remind myself but i point to the amali fight
just not having your mind in the right place like you could do all the physical work like even though
i i try to trick myself as best as i can that you're ready to go if your mind and your spirits not in the right place ready to
compete and you're not in the right headspace bad things will happen and
that's exactly what happened on the night the better man won that night so
you gotta you kind of have to just make sure you're all dialed in from a
physical mental and spiritual front and that's just the way I typically like to
approach the game and I think that's what helped me get to the top to begin with.
Wow, so that O'Malley fight you didn't feel there mentally?
No, I mean, the first round I did what I needed to do.
Like I stuck to the game plan.
And then round two, I don't know what it was in between rounds.
I asked to coach my coaches, was it round coals?
Do you think I won?
I forgot what they said in between rounds, but I was, in my head,
I just kind of flipped the switch. And I was like, I'm just going to go forward and try to gas pedal him.
And I just want to be out of the cage. And unfortunately that was completely against the
game plan and I paid for it. So it's just one of those things like you have a game plan, you have
a recipe for success. All three judges had me winning that round and of course we didn't even get to go to a second round
Pass the second round I should say so if I just stuck to the game plan
I think if I were to keep it the same way it would have been a boring fight
But I think I would have gotten the job done
But again once you you you make that decision to make a certain type of move which I did yeah through a cross
that decision to make a certain type of move which I did. Yeah. Threw a cross, miscalculated the distance, didn't roll my head afterwards, just kind of stood there froze and got capitalized
on a good counter striker and he won the fight. Damn. Do you see fighters have that moral
dilemma of, okay I can win this but it'll be boring, but if I make this entertaining
my money might go up later down the road
Mmm, I don't know this fighters that are thinking like if I make this entertaining my money goes up down the line unless you're Michael Chandler And no disrespect to him because he fights he said I'm here for a good time
Not for a long time like he wears his heart on his sleeve. He goes out there. He's just looking to
Entertain from beginning of the bell all the way to the end. I don fight like that. I didn't get to the top by fighting like that and
It's hard to say I don't think many guys are
Fighting like that with that thought process. Yeah, and if you are then more proud to you, but at the end of the day is
Winning winning at the end of the day. Nobody is gonna go At the end of the day, nobody is going to go back in time
and go, but that was a boring fight.
You're going to look and see who won, who lost,
and that's going to be your curriculum
to judge who was the best at a certain time
period in a certain time.
Fair enough.
That's the way I look at it.
Yeah, well, you see Khabib, who's undefeated,
but then you see the trolls online that are like,
his fights were boring, so he's not the GOAT.
You could say his fights were boring,
but he was very dominant yeah so it's
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Super entertaining and flashy making it a bar fight and then having to go home possibly losing getting half your paycheck
And then maybe go home with stitches in your face. Yeah. Oh, so if you lose its half half your paycheck usually damn
So so there's a lot on the line when it comes to winning and losing them 100%
So, you know, that's one thing I do wish the fans would understand. It's not like we're NBA NFL soccer players
playing in the leagues
overseas where we can make all this millions and it doesn't matter what you
doing there just go out there and have fun and go crazy as you can yeah we're
literally fighting for our next paycheck to possibly last us maybe the next year
especially for me coming to New York like living and growing up in New York, for me to have one fight and it doesn't go my way, like half that
paycheck, it doesn't...
That affects you.
It affects you a lot. So especially when you're coming up. Like now I'm in a
different tax bracket, so I'm fortunate and blessed that I've been able to win as
many fights as I did and accomplish what I've been able to accomplish. But for the
most part, the average guy in New York,
people might say, oh, you could just move out of New York.
Yeah, I'm going to tell my coaches to leave your wife
and your children and just come move with me
and come do all these things in another state.
Doesn't work like that.
So with that said, it's just a very tough place.
And that's why I do appreciate being
able to grow up in New York, because I know how gritty it could be, how tough it could be
and I think that's where I kind of learned to be who I am today. Yeah, New
York ain't cheap so when you see these crazy bags and boxing what goes through
your head? How are we not getting that? Way more fun, way more entertaining,
multiple ways to win. These guys in there rigging fights and somehow someway they're getting paid millions on millions.
And it's usually just the main event, maybe the co-main.
Well we have a stacked card and all these guys are so talented and we get a fraction.
A small, a fraction of a fraction of what these guys are getting.
Of course, I'm in a different place.
I'm talking about for the guys who are just coming in
on their first fight where they're making 10 and 10.
I don't know if it went up to 12 and 12 yet,
but when I came in, I made eight and eight.
So 8,000 to show up, make weight,
8,000 to show up in the cage.
And then if I win, I would get that other 8,000.
So eight and 8.
And then you have to pay your expenses or everything that you pay to get to the
fight. Flights for your extra coaches because they typically only pay for one
fighter, one coach, one hotel room. So people that don't want to sleep on top of
each other because they need a little bit of you know comfort whatever you want to
be weird or do some other stuff in your corner and play with your Johnson.
You get another room. So you pay for another room, you pay for another flight for your
third and it adds up really, really quick. So you're looking at eight and eight and that's
before taxes. And that's before all your expenses to get to the fight. Wow. You know, so it's
been a grind. And like I said, growing up in New York,
it's very expensive compared to most other fighters
that live in other states.
And again, I can only just chop it up to being blessed
and feeling like I've been highly favored
and I don't take that for granted.
So hopefully there's another belt in my future
and we can keep going from there.
I love it.
Sounds like you don't participate in semen retention leading up to the fights. You think it's bullshit or? I think it's bullshit. I've tried it.
I felt no difference. I went off the rails. I felt no difference. So I said okay that's it man. Why
am I gonna cut myself short from having fun if it's not really, I don't say not really, but it's not
at least for me, it's not affecting me.
It's probably a mental thing. I think so, 100%. I think the problem is if you're going out and
you're staying up all night chasing tail, you got a nice girl at home, like I do, I got a nice fiance,
you know, I think it's completely different thing. I go home and I attack my my fiance,
soon to be wife. I feel that, that's the way to do it. So if you ever have kids, which hopefully you do,
would you ever let them get into fighting?
I would not let my kids fight unless I
felt they were putting in the same work that I was putting in,
especially at 21.
When I was 21, I was in college, full-time college student.
I was coaching part-time and I was training myself
full-time doing two sessions a day and I was a different beast back then compared
to what I am now. Like now I'm more educated, I'm more experienced, so I know
when to push, push, pull. Of course your body doesn't bounce back the way he does
at 21. But back then, different, different animal, just very inexperienced, but different animal.
You could throw, hit this guy with a kitchen sink and he's bouncing right back at you,
right in your face. You know, so if I'm going to have kids, which I plan to,
I got to make sure that they're having the same dedication that I had because
you don't play for fun in there. You play for keeps. You're talking your brain cells,
you're talking longevity in the rest of your life.
And I don't take that as a joking matter.
I know people make memes and they joke about stuff
like, oh, that's why you got knocked out.
I'm like, yo bro, if you only understood
what that felt like to be in that position
and know like in the future,
everything could change and your quality of life can change based on this.
And I know some people are gonna say,
well, no one told you to fight.
No one told you to do this.
Well, also no one told you to work a boring ass
fucking nine to five job and never feel alive.
And that's why you watch us at the end of the day.
You know what I mean?
You watch us to come alive.
So when you're out there betting your money,
you work your 40 hour shift to hopefully get by
while we're out there trying to be gladiators to perform
and put on a show for people who want entertainment.
You know, I think there's a respect factor
that should be in the equation.
So again, it comes to my kids, as long as they're
putting in the right work, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it. But I have family that fought
and I tell them like, dude, if you're not going to do the things that you see me doing,
you know what it takes to get here. Don't shortchange yourself. Because at the end of the day,
again, this is not a joking matter. You're playing
with your brain cells and you're talking about your quality of life when you're an old man.
God willing, you make it to 50, 60, 70 years old. You don't want to be the guy that's
shaking and trembling and doing all these things and having to have people
take care of you because you didn't do the right things. and hopefully you made enough money where if you do
get to that point you can at least pay for it to take care of yourself. So that's kind of the way
I look at it. So even my fiance here now we still talk about like retirement. I ask her like if I
were to retire hypothetically tomorrow, how would you feel? If I were to fight Movsar, Evluev and
retire after that even if I was the next guy to fight for a belt, and I retired, how would you feel about that?
Because it's a real conversation, and those are real thoughts that I have, and again, I would rather be able to play with my kids.
And of course, I've accomplished have the opportunity to learn from my parents or my dad and be a big part of their life while they grow.
No, I feel that dude, because there's some fighters that stayed a little too long, I think, and you could see the damage now.
Some, a lot.
Right. Boxers too.
A lot. And it's a sad truth, man. But it's one of those things. And I know people say, no one told you to choose this life.
But again, we move towards our calling,
and whatever you feel is for you is for you.
That's the way I look at it.
It's a lot of sports, too.
NFL, anything with contact, something
to think about for sure.
But we don't get paid millions like those guys.
So hopefully, you know, these guys can the pay will keep increasing. I do think the UFC is one of the highest paying promotions out there.
And hopefully things just keep getting better.
And I know we're not as old as boxing, but you know, I would love for one day to commentate and be able to see these guys getting paid
hundreds of thousands millions and
To be able to say I was a pioneer one of the pioneers in that process while these guys were
Continuously growing the sport. I love that you're thinking about doing what DC did transitioning in a commentary. I would love that I
Think if I were to just remove myself from the sport it
would be at least this is what people tell me they tell me that it would be
like what would you call it? I can't think of the word. Well you would know a
lot about it. It would be a loss. Yeah it would be a loss of I don't say talent but a loss of of insight. Yeah to what's actually going on because I guess people when they listen to my podcast
They feel like I do a great job of
Blending it and making people understand who never trained
What is like or what the positions are happening and so they can understand right?
You can simplify it so the common person can get what's going on exactly. Yeah, that's what I don't know
Well cheers brother, that was fun.
Cheers.
Thanks for coming on.
See you guys soon.