Aljamain Sterling Details UFC 296 Ticket Fiasco

Asked about Sterling’s ticket mishap, UFC president CEO Dana White said that “Funk Master” might have tried to acquire tickets through a sponsor and he had no idea why they might have been pulled. Sterling subsequently responded to White’s comments on his YouTube channel.

“I’m not trying to fan the flames; I think somewhere there was a little bit of a disconnect,” Sterling said. “The only thing I didn’t really understand is someone sent me the clip of Dana saying that the tickets were through a sponsor. I don’t know what that was about because I’ve never had tickets from a sponsor for any of the UFC fights, I always go through the same exact channels every single time.”

“This is the first time that that’s actually happened, so that was weird. I don’t know if that’s what someone told him, but no, I actually asked for tickets through the UFC channels and just, unfortunately—The worst part about it was not even the saying ‘no’ part, because obviously it’s a big event. I know a lot of people are coming, they’re spending top dollar. We’re fighters coming in, they comp us for free, especially if there’s a relevant fighter in the weight class. Title fight, Belal Muhammad’s got to be their kind of a thing, obviously Shavkat’s fighting too. There’s fighters that are in the presence of this event that make sense for possible future matchups. So, for me, there really wasn’t anything there, but I just wish either way, regardless, I think I should have been informed a little bit earlier.”

While the UFC staff eventually reached out to Sterling, he had already left the venue to watch the event at a rooftop bar nearby.

“So, I just tried to do everything the right way and they tried to salvage it later on to go hang out in the lounge, but like I said, I would have hung out in the lounge. I even asked for that before we even left the arena, but by the time anyone got back to us, we were already at the other event, I already opened the tab.”

The UFC’s relationship with Sterling has been strained since “Funk Master” won the bantamweight title with a disqualification win over Petr Yan. Sterling was dethroned by Sean O'Malley at UFC 292 in August, a matchup he had requested to be delayed but was declined. Sterling subsequently requested a fight with Max Holloway for his featherweight debut, which was also denied.