Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling believes he has what it takes to win a world title in a second UFC weight category.

Sterling made a successful debut in the featherweight division this past April when he scored a unanimous decision win over Calvin Kattar as part of the organisation’s bumper UFC 300 event in Las Vegas. It was a result which came around eight months after Sterling was defeated for the UFC’s 135-pound title by the now-former champ Sean O’Malley (which snapped a nine-fight win streak, incidentally.)

And while the current champion Ilia Topuria, who became the first fighter to knock Max Holloway in the UFC 308 main event last weekend, has a long list of potential contenders extending out in front of him, Sterling says that he has the necessary skills to hand the Georgian-Spaniard the very first loss of his professional career — so long as he can take him to the ground.

“If I were to fight him, god willing, I beat Movsar [Evloev]and I do get the crack, I do think I have a great style to neutralise his offense,” Sterling said recently on this YouTube channel, as noted by MMA Fighting

“Bro, most of these guys are striking with him,” he added. “I ain’t doing that, bro! I ain’t doing that. We’re sitting there looking for a takedown. I have to make it a grappling match. I’m trying to the the W, I’m not trying to get my brain and my head sent to the next dimension again. I’m cool on that.”

One potential hangup, though, is Sterling’s friendship with the reigning 135-pound champion Merab Dvalishvili who, in turn, is close to Topuria given their sharged Georgian heritage.

“Merab and I are boys. Merab is also boys with Ilia, so I don’t know what that turns into,” he explained. “Thankfully I don’t have to worry about that anytime soon. I’ve got one other tough opponent in front of me and then we kind of go from there.”

First thing’s first, Sterling will take on the 18-0 Movsar Evloev at UFC 310 in December.