Aljamain Sterling dominant in featherweight debut against Calvin Kattar at UFC 300
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, April 13, 2024, for the biggest event mixed martial arts has ever put on, UFC 300, going down live from the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
Headlining the event is a light-heavyweight title bout between former UFC middleweight champion and current UFC light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (9-2), who aims to make the first defense of his title in tonight’s main event opposing no. 1 ranked former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill (13-1).
Co-headlining the event is also a title fight, this one going down at 115 lbs as UFC strawweight champion Weili Zhang (24-3) is set to battle no. 1 ranked Yan Xiaonan in the first ever China versus China title fight in UFC history.
Our feature fight of the evening comes in the lightweight division between no. 2 ranked Justin Gaethje (25-4) and former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway (25-7), who will slug it out for the BMF title in our third PPV bout of the evening.
Our preliminary co-main event of the evening showed the return of no. 8 ranked Calvin Kattar (23-8), who welcomed former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling (24-4) to 145 lbs tonight. Kattar hadn’t fought since October of 2022 when he injured his knee against no. 6 ranked Arnold Allen in their main event clash, while this was Sterling’s first fight since losing his title to Sean O’Malley last August.
Continue reading to see how this featherweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Aljamain Sterling def. Calvin Kattar via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Sterling had a good opening round, securing a single leg takedown about two minutes into the bout. He secured one hook and nearly took the back of Kattar, who though escaped the position on a couple occasions, got mat returned each time.
Kattar was able to finally escape the body lock of Sterling in the final minute of round one, Sterling of which secured another double leg and spent the last 10 seconds of round one in Kattar’s guard.
Sterling secured another takedown to begin the second, Kattar getting back to his feet with Sterling pressing him into the fence for a good portion of round two. They eventually separate and Sterling landed a punch combination on the hesitant Kattar.
Sterling secured another double leg at range and spent the final minute of the middle stretch in Kattar’s side control.
Sterling continued to maul Kattar throughout the third and final round, spending the majority of the round in top position. He tried to wrap up an arm-triangle choke, and also a guillotine choke in the final seconds, but was ultimately unable to secure the finish in his dominant featherweight debut.
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