Aljamain Sterling is preparing for his biggest challenge at 145lbs yet against the 18-0 undefeated star Movsar Evloev, and there’s already a lot of heat to the buildup at UFC 310. Part of the animosity between the two stars is partly because of ‘The Funkmaster’, who made a strong claim, accusing the Russian native of employing performance-enhancing drugs, but why? Well, we’ll take a look at that issue in this article ahead of their fight this weekend.

It was before their initial slated UFC 307 clash that Sterling made bold claims about Evloev. The former bantamweight champion insinuated that his opponent was “on something.” But what did he say that without any evidence? Well, Sterling recently cleared the air surrounding the reason behind his accusation.

The real reason why Aljamain Sterling accused Movsar Evloev of taking PEDs

Even though there are fighters in the UFC who are rivals, with some of them belonging to different countries, there are quite a few who train with each other. Like Sean Strickland training with Alex Pereira, former champ Aljamain Sterling also claims to have fighter friends from the place in Russia where Movsar Evloev is from. Claiming to have heard that a lot of fighters juice up with PEDs in that region, ‘Funk Master’ expressed skepticism about his opponent’s claim to being a clean fighter.

“We’ve all heard the same accusations about you know, respectfully like I said, I have friends from that region, It’s different… I thought guys have been on gear,” Aljamain Sterling told Ariel Helwani. “You don’t know until you they actually pop for something… My body looks exactly the same as it did when I was 21 years old. Like, nothing’s changed.”

Aljamain Sterling continued, “So I have speculation that, yeah, maybe he’s on some sh*t. Maybe he has. Maybe he’s not anymore. I don’t know.” This was over a month ago, and recently Evloev came clean on his thoughts about these accusations. Not only did he deny these claims, but he also blamed ‘Aljo’ for their spot on the UFC 310 card.

How did Movsar Evloev respond to Sterling’s allegations?

Movsar Evloev believes his fight against Aljamain Sterling should have been on the main card, but they’re placed on the prelims. With a former champion and an undefeated fighter in this bout, the Russian star doesn’t think it’s fair for them to fight at such a spot, and hence, he pushed the blame for their fight’s spot on the card on ‘Funk Master’. While claiming that Sterling has no knowledge or evidence to make PED accusations against him, Evloev has promised to prove his claim for a title shot.

“How you can say that someone uses steroids if he doesn’t know?… I have USADA or doping control and just tell them if you know something…I think we are on [the] prelims because of him. But, I don’t care, like, save money. Nobody cares. Maybe [it’s] even better to stay on prelim for this card because more people will watch our fight.. and find out who is the next contender for the [featherweight] belt,” Movsar Evloev stated on UFC 310 media day.

With just a few hours to go, these accusations may not play any role, since all that will matter for Aljamain Sterling and Movsar Evloev is winning. Who do you think will come out on top at UFC 310?