Round 1
8 of 24
Sig.
strikes
strikes
4 of 16
1 of 2
Take-
downs
downs
0 of 0
2:19
Control
0:00
0
Sub
attempts
attempts
0
Distance 5Clinch 0Ground 3
Where it
happened
happened
Distance 4Clinch 0Ground 0
VSSettled
The story going in
- Has finished 6 of 17 UFC wins.
- Comes in on a 5-fight win streak.
- 22 UFC bouts deep — 10 more than Zalal.
- Has finished 4 of 8 UFC wins.
26-5
Record
18-6-1
36
Age
−7 yr29
5' 7"
Height
+3″5' 10"
71″
Reach
+1″72″
Orthodox
Stance
Switch
+1022
UFC bouts
12
6/1735% of wins
Finishes
+15%4/850% of wins
Serra-Longo Fight Team
Gym
Factory X
Cortland, New York
From
Englewood, Colorado
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.
The call vs the fight
What we published before the card, next to what happened in the cage.
Our call
Youssef Zalal
51.9% confidentTOSS-UP
The fight
Aljamain Sterling
LOSS✓
Graded against the official UFC result, from
the same record every other page on this site is graded from. The tick beside the verdict
is the method call — a correct winner with a wrong method is a partial hit and reads
as one. See the full public record →
Round by round
Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — and the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them.
UFCStats · per round
5 rounds of tape
Round 2
15 of 29
Sig.
strikes
strikes
15 of 23
1 of 3
Take-
downs
downs
0 of 0
2:25
Control
0:00
0
Sub
attempts
attempts
0
Distance 10Clinch 5Ground 0
Where it
happened
happened
Distance 15Clinch 0Ground 0
Round 31 sub attempt
2 of 3
Sig.
strikes
strikes
3 of 4
2 of 2
Take-
downs
downs
0 of 0
0:47
Control
3:48
0
Sub
attempts
attempts
1
Distance 1Clinch 1Ground 0
Where it
happened
happened
Distance 3Clinch 0Ground 0
Round 41 sub attempt
16 of 22
Sig.
strikes
strikes
3 of 4
1 of 2
Take-
downs
downs
0 of 0
4:16
Control
0:11
1
Sub
attempts
attempts
0
Distance 6Clinch 8Ground 2
Where it
happened
happened
Distance 1Clinch 2Ground 0
Round 5Ended 5:00
5 of 11
Sig.
strikes
strikes
10 of 18
1 of 2
Take-
downs
downs
0 of 0
4:02
Control
0:00
0
Sub
attempts
attempts
0
Distance 3Clinch 1Ground 1
Where it
happened
happened
Distance 9Clinch 1Ground 0
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.
Judges’ scorecards
Every judge’s round, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score.
Official card
Unanimous Decision
Referee · Herb Dean
Aljamain SterlingYoussef Zalal
| Judge | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Bell | 10–9 | 10–9 | 9–10 | 10–8 | 10–9 | 49–45 |
| Derek Cleary2.1 avg spread · 43% wide | 10–9 | 10–9 | 9–10 | 10–8 | 10–9 | 49–45 |
| Sal D'Amato2.1 avg spread · 46% wide | 10–9 | 10–9 | 9–10 | 10–8 | 10–9 | 49–45 |
Media cards — 18 scored, Aljamain Sterling first · unofficial
Kendrick Johnson MMAWeekly.com50–44
Jake Noecker Home of Fight49–45
Jed Meshew MMAFighting.com49–45
Tyler Treese Sherdog.com49–45
Dayne Fox Sherdog.com49–45
Matthew Wells MMAJunkie.com49–45
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com49–45
Chris De Santiago MMA Island49–45
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com49–45
Brian Knapp Sherdog.com49–45
Scott Fontana New York Post49–45
Zane Simon The MMA Vivisection49–45
Nick Baldwin theScore49–45
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com49–45
MM A Latinoamerica49–45
Fergus O' Farrell Setanta49–45
Combat Press.com49–46
Sheehan SevereMMA.com49–46
Fan vote · unofficial
49-45 Sterling · 73%49-46 Sterling · 13%49-44 Sterling · 5%50-44 Sterling · 4%47-46 Zalal · 1%
78 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.
Still to come on this page
Named rather than hidden. It is built from data already on disk and lands in the next pass of this build-out.
The market story coming in this build-out
What the price did in the week before the cage door shut, with the moment our pick was frozen marked on it. Where we captured no price history for a bout, this panel will say so rather than draw a line that was never there.