When Aljamain Sterling was a freshman at Uniondale HS, he was eager to join the basketball team. On the second day of tryouts, he was abruptly cut.
But the wrestling coach was eager to have him telling the 5-foot-7 athlete that he had a better build for the mat than the basketball court.
“He just convinced me, ‘You’re never really going to grow much taller than what you are now. You probably be 120 pounds soaking wet as a grown man,’ ” Sterling, 33, told The Post. “I was like, ‘Maybe he’s right.’ “
Indeed he was.
Sterling went on to wrestle throughout high school and college, where he amassed an 87-27 record and was a NCAA Division III All-American.
Towards the end of his college wrestling career, Sterling began mixed martial arts and joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He quickly became a standout in the combat sport and earned the nickname “Funk Master.”
“I fell in love with it,” he said.
On Saturday, the Long Island native, who is on an eight-fight win streak, will look to defend his UFC bantamweight title a second time at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey for the main event of UFC 288.
He’ll face off against former champ Henry “Triple C” Cejudo — who previously held two consecutive belts in separate weight classes and is an Olympic gold-medal wrestler — on home turf.
A victory for Sterling would set the record for the most consecutive UFC title defenses at bantamweight and prove that he’s one of the best in the business.
But the meteoric rise in the Octagon, now all on the line come Saturday night, hasn’t been a conventional one.
He spent his early years in what he calls a “broken home” in central Roosevelt, one of 19 siblings.
“There was a lot of gang violence when I was growing up,” he said.
The family eventually moved to nearby Uniondale, but the dangers persisted.
“One of my brothers was heavily involved in a gang, still affiliated,” he said.
High school wrestling saved Sterling from the circumstances of his environment.
“[It] gave me a different purpose, a different path to take instead of following some of the people who could be most influential,” he said, adding “especially not having your parents who are at home all the time and trying to steer you in the right direction.”
Eager to leave home, he went on to wrestle in college, attending SUNY Morrisville and SUNY Cortland, and graduating with a degree in physical education in 2012.
“I’m just thankful that I was able to navigate through that and see a light at the end of the tunnel. I really do owe my life to wrestling,” he said.
In 2011, while still a college wrestler, he started MMA fighting in the off-season to make some extra cash.
Sterling developed a relationship with UFC icon Jon “Bones” Jones, who took the young brawler under his wing.
“I reached out to him on MySpace,” Sterling said. “He gave me the address to his gym, and it was five minutes from my college at SUNY Cortland. So from there, I went down as soon as the wrestling season ended.”
After repeatedly winning his early fights, Sterling decided to go for glory, entering the UFC in 2014.
Around that time, he started training close to home, on the border of Uniondale and Garden City, with UFC legends Matt “The Terror” Serra and Ray “The Godfather” Longo, who quickly recognized Sterling’s talent.
“We hit it off from day one,” Serra, who focuses on Sterling’s grappling game, told The Post. “He never got handed anything, he works very hard. He was a good kid, and now he’s a great man.”
Around the gym, Sterling makes efforts to mentor other fighters.
“Whenever he’s home, he’s always teaching class. He’s always helping everybody out. He’s our captain, and then he leads by example,” Matt “SteamRolla” Frevola, 32, who will also be fighting on Saturday, told The Post.
Last Spring, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman honored the fighter with a parade in his adolescent neighborhood in Uniondale.
He’s a “community hero,” Blakeman told The Post.
“Roosevelt and Uniondale, you don’t really hear a lot of positive things that come out of those neighborhoods,” Sterling said.
“It’s nice just to show a different side of things — what you can achieve.”
Longo, who works with the champ on striking, told The Post that Sterling is only just getting started.
“There’s pieces to his game that people haven’t even seen yet, which is remarkable to me,” he said. “It’s fascinating that there’s still things that he could unleash in a fight that would have people saying, ‘holy crap.’ “
But, he remains humble.
“I don’t look at myself as a celebrity,” said Sterling, who now lives in Massapequa, where he’s a regular at the town’s popular watering hole Johnny McGorey’s — when he’s not in Las Vegas fighting or training.
“[I’m] just some regular Long Island guy, just like you, having a beer, having a couple of drinks, shooting the s – – t,” he said. “I like to just live my life and be an everyday person. I don’t think any one person is bigger or better than anybody else.”
The LI faithful are rallying around Sterling as he readies to defend his title once more.
“There’s more pride when it’s in your backyard,” Serra said.
The bantamweight is well aware — and predicts a second-round knockout thanks to his strong ground game.
Sterling said, “I plan on seizing the moment and making the most of it.”
