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Events · UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang · Brian Ortega vs Aljamain Sterling
From the tape · 23 Aug 2025

Brian Ortega vs Aljamain Sterling

UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang · Shanghai, Hebei, China
Result

Aljamain Sterling beat Brian Ortega

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
5 of 5
Clock
5:00
Catch WeightCo-MainReferee · Herb Dean

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner BrianOrtega“T-City”Torrance, California
VSOn the tape
Blue corner AljamainSterling“Funk Master”Serra-Longo Fight Team · Cortland, New York
Catch Weight5 rounds23 Aug 2025
The story going in
  • Has finished 7 of 8 UFC wins.
  • Has finished 6 of 16 UFC wins.
  • 21 UFC bouts deep — 8 more than Ortega.
16-5
Record
26-5
−2 yr34
Age
36
+1″5' 8"
Height
5' 7"
69″
Reach
+2″71″
Switch
Stance
Orthodox
13
UFC bouts
+821
+50%7/888% of wins
Finishes
6/1638% of wins
Torrance, California
From
Cortland, New York
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Brian Ortega2 sig landed
HEAD100%2 of 25BODY0%0 of 2LEGS0%0 of 1
Aljamain Sterling27 sig landed
HEAD59%16 of 32BODY11%3 of 4LEGS30%8 of 8
2 of 28
Sig.
strikes
27 of 44
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 2Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 27Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Ortega firstBen Cartlidge9–10David Lethaby9–10Vito Paolillo9–10
Round 25:00 of action
Brian Ortega9 sig landed
HEAD56%5 of 33BODY44%4 of 6LEGS0%0 of 1
Aljamain Sterling13 sig landed
HEAD46%6 of 44BODY8%1 of 4LEGS46%6 of 6
9 of 40
Sig.
strikes
13 of 54
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 9Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 12Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Ortega firstBen Cartlidge9–10David Lethaby9–10Vito Paolillo9–10
Round 35:00 of action
Brian Ortega21 sig landed
HEAD38%8 of 27BODY38%8 of 10LEGS24%5 of 5
Aljamain Sterling35 sig landed
HEAD71%25 of 42BODY6%2 of 2LEGS23%8 of 8
21 of 42
Sig.
strikes
35 of 52
0 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 1
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 21Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 34Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Ortega firstBen Cartlidge9–10David Lethaby9–10Vito Paolillo9–10
Round 45:00 of action
Brian Ortega13 sig landed
HEAD62%8 of 29BODY38%5 of 8LEGS0%0 landed
Aljamain Sterling25 sig landed
HEAD52%13 of 26BODY36%9 of 10LEGS12%3 of 3
13 of 37
Sig.
strikes
25 of 39
0 of 0
Take-
downs
1 of 1
0:02
Control
1:36
Distance 12Clinch 0Ground 1
Where it
happened
Distance 16Clinch 3Ground 6
Judges · this round · Ortega firstBen Cartlidge9–10David Lethaby9–10Vito Paolillo9–10
Round 55:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Brian Ortega10 sig landed
HEAD70%7 of 24BODY30%3 of 3LEGS0%0 landed
Aljamain Sterling24 sig landed
HEAD71%17 of 31BODY25%6 of 6LEGS4%1 of 1
10 of 27
Sig.
strikes
24 of 38
0 of 1
Take-
downs
2 of 4
0:06
Control
2:19
Distance 10Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 11Clinch 2Ground 11
Judges · this round · Ortega firstBen Cartlidge9–10David Lethaby9–10Vito Paolillo9–10

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Herb Dean
Brian OrtegaAljamain Sterling
Official totals — Brian Ortega first
JudgeTotal
Ben Cartlidge2.1 avg spread · 45% wide45–50
David Lethaby2.1 avg spread · 44% wide45–50
Vito Paolillo2.1 avg spread · 48% wide45–50

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 7 scored, Brian Ortega first · unofficial

Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com45–50
Nick Baldwin theScore45–50
Danny Segura MMAJunkie.com45–50
Mike Heck MMAFighting.com45–50
Sherdog.com45–50
Mathis Desjardins Cageside Press45–50
MM AMania.com45–50

Fan vote · unofficial

50-45 Sterling · 73%49-46 Sterling · 18%48-47 Sterling · 3%50-44 Sterling · 3%49-44 Sterling · 2%

62 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Brian Ortega

0.93takedowns / 15 min
0.93 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
2.54 / 15m
3.72 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
7.94 / 15m
25%
ACCURACY
32%
0.90 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.60 / 15m

Aljamain Sterling

2.54takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.73 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Featherweight

The market story

What the market did on the way to the cage — the price, not our model. This bout is settled; the window below is closed.

We hold no market price for this bout — no captured price series, and no opening or closing line in the sportsbook record we fall back on. So there is nothing to show, and we would rather show nothing than draw a line that was never there.

Brian Ortega vs Aljamain Sterling.

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