UFC featherweight contender Aljamain Sterling is dismissing claims from divisional rival Aaron Pico that he is a UFC “rankings merchant.”

Pico made a comment after his UFC 333 knockout win over Losene Keita that he wasn’t thrilled that Sterling didn’t want to fight down in the rankings against him when Arnold Allen fell out of their fight.

Sterling, who is set to fight Kevin Vallejos at UFC Qatar, is now firing back at Pico and his accusations.

Aljamain Sterling Fires Back at Aaron Pico

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Sterling denied Pico’s accusations that he is sitting on his high ranking at 145 lbs.

“Aaron Pico called me out, and he basically said I’m a ranking merchant and just squatting on my ranking. It’s just fascinating because of three of my UFC fights, and I’ve had over 20-plus UFC fights, three guys were not ranked in the top 15, top 10, top five. It’s just bizarre to me that he can say that when I don’t control how often I get to fight because the UFC has me waiting,” Sterling said (via MMAjunkie.com).

“On top of that, I’m the only one who called out Movsar Evloev. I called for him to fight before he had an opportunity to fight for a world title after losing to Movsar in a very close fight. I then fought Brian Ortega, who was No. 5. After beating Ortega, I beat Yussef Zalal, who was on an eight-fight win streak, five in the UFC, and four of those wins in the UFC were finishes. Now I’m fighting another killer in Kevin Vallejos. I don’t see where the squatting or the trying to protect rank? You have all these guys you can potentially fight. Why are you picking on me, bro?”

Aljamain Sterling Open to Fighting Aaron Pico

With a date against Vallejos next month at UFC Qatar, Sterling won’t be fighting Pico anytime soon. He needs to put all of his energy towards this fight, as it is vital for his career if he is going to get to move past Jean Silva for the next title shot in the featherweight division.

But depending on how things shake out in the UFC featherweight division, Sterling is more than open to fighting Pico down the road, just when it makes sense for his career, as right now he is pursuing a title fight against UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.

“It has nothing to do fighting guys behind me; I don’t care who I fight. I just need to know that the direction I’m going is going to take me where I want to go. There’s a destination to the game, and I know Pico knows that. So him trying to create a narrative that I’m avoiding him, or anyone is avoiding him, no. You came in, and you got flatlined by one guy, a decision maker like Movsar Evloev, and then you’re trying to call shots like you’ve been killing the game the whole time. Bro, what are you talking about?” Sterling said.