Aljamain Sterling is unsure if Rodolfo Bellato faked his knockout at UFC Atlanta.
The UFC Light Heavyweight received a ton of backlash following his no-contest result against Paul Craig at UFC Atlanta on Saturday.
While grounded, Craig hit Bellato with an illegal up-kick which seemingly knocked out his opponent and left him in attack mode with the referee thereafter.
UFC stars like Justin Gaethje have called Bellato ‘the biggest flop in the MMA history’ as the fighter looked at the referee right before he fell to the canvas.
Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling has faced this criticism before, following his title win via disqualification against Petr Yan in 2021. Sterling was deemed unable to continue after he got hit by an illegal knee against Yan, with many fans claiming he was faking.
Aljamain Sterling won’t say Rodolfo Bellato faked KO
Giving his take on Bellato’s ‘really bizarre’ no-contest result against Craig, Sterling won’t go so far as to say Bellato was pretending to be knocked out.
“A lot of people are saying he faked this KO reaction,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel.
“He looks like an outline in the streets. Somehow, someway, he’s a corpse. He just starts to shimmy and wakes up. It looked like one of those snail things where you dump water in it and they just activate.
“It was the most bizarre thing, but, it doesn’t look good. It doesn’t look great. I think we can all agree with that.
“Now I know people saying, I’m an actor. I got my belt from acting, and I was selling it and pretending to be really hurt, and then I couldn’t continue…
“Guys, I legitimately was really hurt,” Sterling said.
“This guy, this kick to the head. I don’t know,” Sterling added of Bellato.
“Maybe something caught him by surprise and then shut off the gears. That was really wacky to see. I’m not gonna say the guy was faking because that reaction, the way he sold everything or did everything, the way his whole body just moved and lit up.”
Aljamain Sterling jokes Rodolfo Bellato should get an award if he was acting
Following his disqualification title win over Petr Yan, Sterling was trolled by many fans, saying how he should have received an ‘Oscar’ for his ‘acting’ performance.
When it comes to Bellato’s wild KO reaction, Sterling says:
“If they’re acting, if you can act that good, that’s crazy work because that looks spot on…
“I’m standing up, I’m clapping, I’m giving an ovation like, dude, you just sold the hell out of that,” Sterling said if Bellato faked the KO.
“As he got cracked, he looks at the ref, turns back and it’s like the lights shut off. He goes corpse for like three seconds, gets up, and starts shrimping.
“The ref comes over and he’s attacking his leg, looking to pull guard and start attacking armbars and omoplatas.
“I can’t say he was faking for sure. I don’t know.”
Sterling continued.
“That’s a tough one to say. It just looked really bizarre. I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t think the world’s seen anything like that.
“But, I will say if there’s an acting award, if that is an act, I think this man gets the award. So, I’m gonna have to give him the award that Petr Yan gave me because I wasn’t even acting.”