UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling recently found himself in the middle of a social media firestorm ahead of one of the biggest fights of his career.
Last week, Sterling posted a photo of himself and controversial online figure Andre Tate, who was recently banned from YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and other prominent social media platforms for hate-speech and making misogynistic comments.
Sterling, who goes for his second title defense against T.J. Dillashaw on Saturday at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi, captioned the post: “Top G’s never die! Good chopping it up with you fellas.”
Top G’s never die! Good chopping it up with you fellas
•#Dubai #TopG #TateBrothers #UFC280 pic.twitter.com/Rov8hKnthe— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 15, 2022
Sterling’s tweet sparked an uproar from some MMA fans, who scoffed at him hanging out with Tate given the controversy surrounding him. Sterling (21-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) did not stay quiet and further stirred the pot this week as he went on a lengthy back-and-forth with many people on Twitter.
Sterling addressed the situation Wednesday during his UFC 280 media day news conference.
“So I quote-tweeted somebody that said what everybody else was saying that they were coming down on me for, and I was agreeing with the tweet,” Sterling told MMA Junkie and other reporters. “And I said, ‘You’re right. I 100 percent agree with you that Andrew Tate should not ever say that it is the responsibility of a victim.’ So people that were coming at me were completely wrong, and I was trying to explain that you misread the tweet and then they would show me the same tweet, and I would say you’re not understanding what I’m saying. You’re misreading the tweet, because I’m quoting and I’m agreeing. I am on your side.”
In one of Tate’s many infamous controversial takes, Tate believes women who are rape victims “should take some personal responsibility.”
“If I left a million dollars outside my front door – when it got stolen people would say. ‘Why was it there? Irresponsible’,” Tate wrote on Twitter in 2017. “I can say ‘NOBODY SHOULD STEAL ITS WRONG’ and everyone will agree. But still. Very little sympathy per my bad decision pre thievery.
“Sexual assault is the same. WHY were you there. With this guy. Drunk. You don’t even know. Why? ‘NOBODY SHOULD RAPE’ yes I agree. But why?
“Take some personal responsibility. This zero blame game is damaging to the female cause as a whole. Protect yourselves.”
Sterling tried to distance himself from some of Tate’s beliefs while responding to backlash on Twitter, saying, “No, not everything they’ve said I agree with.” He again doubled down at media day, clarifying his comments made online.
“I have 14-plus sisters,” Sterling said. “I love my mom. I would never tell my mom that if anything like that happened to them that, ‘It’s your fault.’ That’s just the craziest thing to ever say to anybody.
“That’s like, if you’re in the hood, and you’re walking down a nice neighborhood or something, and you’re a person of color, and you get shot because you have a hoodie on, that I’m telling you it’s your fault because you’re walking down the street. That doesn’t even make any sense. Why would I ever blame the victim? No, it’s the person that’s not taking the time to understand.
“So the clarity on that is I never victim-blamed anybody. I think that’s the craziest thing to even make an assumption like that and if you don’t understand what I said, ask me to clarify. Don’t start jumping the gun and start throwing labels and sh*t like that.”
Sterling went on to express what he perceives to a problem with today’s internet culture, which reflected on the public backlash for posting a picture with Tate.
“I think people are really crazy, and I think that’s the problem with the world today,” Sterling said. “We are so quick to condemn people instead of actually giving people a chance to reason and analyze what people are saying vs. assuming and just making a judgment and being completely wrong.
“That’s just the world that we live in today. I don’t think it’s going to change anytime soon. With that said, hopefully T.J. Dillashaw moves the needle this weekend at UFC 280.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 280.