The best UFC bantamweight champion of all time, and the worst

The best UFC bantamweight champion of all-time: Aljamain Sterling

Making history is more often than not, a good thing. Aljamain Sterling was not so fortunate when he made history by being the first person to win a UFC title via disqualification against Petr Yan at UFC 239.

It was a moment in time that would send more than one ripple into the MMA world. Up to the point of the illegal knee near the end of the fourth round, Yan was likely cruising to a championship. Referee Marc Smith allowed Sterling about two and a half minutes to recover before waving off the fight with the ringside physician.

Sterling expressed disappointment at winning the belt in such a way during his post-fight interview, which may have taken some of the sting off of the unusual turn of events for the fans. A few hours later, Sterling would post a celebratory photo to social media that sent fans into a tirade and immediately turned Sterling into a villain in their eyes.

Sterling would need time to heal from the illegal knee, so an interim title fight was made between Yan and Cory Sandhagen. Yan won the interim title at UFC 267, setting the stage for a rematch the fans thought they knew the result of before it even began. It was also Sterling's first opportunity to show why he would go on to be the greatest bantamweight champion of all-time.

The rematch and unification bout was a complete flip of the script from the first fight, with Sterling winning the belt handily. It was the product of game plan adjustments that only the greatest fighters can make and execute. The fans did not care.

Sterling would go on to successfully defend his title against former champion TJ Dillashaw at UFC 280, winning in convincing fashion by KO/TKO in the second round. Sterling would then successfully defend the title against former champion Henry Cejudo six months later, which setup a post-fight face-off between Sterling and hero to the fans, Sean O'Malley.

It was during Sterling's diatribe against O'Malley that it became clear why Sterling was so cringe. He was not any good at being the bad-guy because it was not natural to him.

Sterling's title reign would come to an end at UFC 292 when he lost to O'Malley by TKO. The real Sterling would appear at the post-fight press conference where he refused to say anything that would detract from O'Malley's win. Sterling's entire statement focused on his own mistake and complimenting O'Malley's capitalizing on it.

Filtering out the noise and evaluating Sterling on merits alone, it is difficult to argue his three title defenses against three interim or former champions is not the best run in UFC bantamweight history. It is just unfortunate the fans could not see Sterling for the intelligent, committed fighter he was before his reign ended. They may not get the opportunity again.