Bucking the recent trend of high level fighters leaving the UFC for Bellator at … one, the UFC has re-signed Alistair Overeem and Aljamain Sterling. This allows the promotion to keep a well-known but kinda not that good but it’s the heavyweight division so he’s like one fight away from the title heavyweight, in Overeem.
In Aljamain Sterling, they secure the services of a really good bantamweight. Sterling has quietly become a threat in the UFC’s 135 division and had he left it really would’ve been the first time a guy with real possible upside left the UFC for Bellator. So far, those departing have tended to be fighters who have more or less run their course in the UFC. Josh Thomson, Ben Henderson being the two best fighters to sign with Bellator over the UFC, and then guys like Tito Ortiz who just suck and need a payday. Sterling would’ve been a guy on the rise, who might be marketable, leaving. But, alas, he didn’t.
Personally, I’ve always been on notice when he fights because he has one of the most unique names I’ve ever encountered. But at 4-0 in the UFC itself, and undefeated as a professional, he really is someone who a company needs around for credibility purposes. (All fifteen people who care about the bantamweights who aren’t named Cruz or Faber.)
Overeem is just who he is. Big. Looks impressive. Cheated for years. But he’s a heavyweight and there are like four of them with any name value. He already had a pretty big contract from the UFC, after they bought into the hype like idiots, so who knows what he’s getting now. Whatever it is, he better not look a gift horse in the mouth.
Horse.
Because he eats horse meat.
