Compare Aaron Pico vs Aljamain Sterling — UFC matchup breakdown
Tale of the Tape
The biometric deltas where one side genuinely has an edge.
Activity & layoff
The recency dimension Tale of the Tape doesn't carry. How active each fighter has been, and how that compares to active peers in their division.
Division percentiles below rank both fighters against the Featherweight roster (348 fighters).
Recent form
Last five pro bouts (non-UFC fights dashed + tagged), current trajectory, and the level of opposition going into this matchup.
Schedule Score
Who they've faced × what they've done. Composite + components compared head-to-head, percentile-ranked against every UFC fighter w/ ≥3 resolved bouts.
A descriptive read of the non-UFC slate from opponents’ full career pro records — not a UFC-grade Schedule Score.
Per-tier records + bout-by-bout
| Tier | Aaron Pico | Aljamain Sterling |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | — | 4-1 |
| Top-5 | 0-1 | 5-4 |
| Top-15 | 1-0 | 4-0 |
| Cross-div champ | — | 1-0 |
| Cross-div ranked | — | 1-0 |
| Building | — | 1-0 |
| Unproven | — | 2-0 |
- W vs Youssef Zalal#773Apr 25, 2026 · Top-15
- W vs Brian Ortega45Aug 23, 2025 · Cross-div ranked
- L vs Movsar Evloev#586Dec 7, 2024 · Top-5
- W vs Calvin Kattar#878Apr 13, 2024 · Top-5
- L vs Sean O'Malley#296Aug 19, 2023 · Champion
- W vs Henry CejudoCHAMP100May 6, 2023 · Champion
- W vs TJ Dillashaw#297Oct 22, 2022 · Champion
- W vs Petr Yan#197Apr 9, 2022 · Champion
- W vs Petr YanCHAMP100Mar 6, 2021 · Champion
- W vs Cory Sandhagen#485Jun 6, 2020 · Top-5
- W vs Pedro Munhoz#481Jun 8, 2019 · Top-5
- W vs Jimmie Rivera#582Feb 17, 2019 · Top-5
- W vs Cody Stamann#1069Sep 8, 2018 · Top-15
- W vs Brett Johns#1463Apr 21, 2018 · Top-15
- L vs Marlon Moraes#784Dec 9, 2017 · Top-5
- W vs Renan Barao67Jul 29, 2017 · Cross-div champ
- W vs Augusto Mendes8Apr 15, 2017 · Unproven
- L vs Raphael Assuncao#485Jan 28, 2017 · Top-5
- L vs Bryan Caraway#880May 29, 2016 · Top-5
- W vs Johnny Eduardo#1072Dec 10, 2015 · Top-15
- W vs Takeya Mizugaki#677Apr 18, 2015 · Top-5
- W vs Hugo Viana18Jul 16, 2014 · Building
- W vs Cody Gibson8Feb 22, 2014 · Unproven
All figures are 0–100 ratings (shown as %), not percentages of anything literal. Schedule strength = the average quality of every UFC opponent faced (win or lose). Win quality = the average quality of the opponents actually beaten. The composite Schedule Score combines schedule strength (65%) with win quality (35%). Per-bout opponent quality is scored on rank-at-time-of-fight (champion 100, ranks 1–5 = 90→78, ranks 6–15 = 75→60), with cross-division and P4P signals layered on, falling back to opponent UFC record-at-time for unranked opponents. For fighters with limited UFC experience the headline is held toward a rookie baseline, so debut / low-sample fighters read lower than established names. UFC ranking data is sparse before December 2018, so legacy-era fighters score from record-at-time when ranks are missing.
Career splits
Striking matchup
Each fighter's offense mapped against the other's defense — where one attacks meets where the other gets hit, across head, body, and leg. Per 15 minutes of UFC fight time.
Evenly matched striking — no clear edge either way.
Each lane: the attacker’s strike rate (offense) vs the other’s rate absorbed (defense), graded on the division. The bar leans toward whoever wins the exchange — longer + greener = a bigger, higher-quality edge.
Full breakdown — all zones, both views
| Zone | Fighter | Landed / 15 | Accuracy | Absorbed / 15 | Career landed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head | Aaron Pico | top 19% of division43.9 | 48% | around division average33.0 | 86 |
| Head | Aljamain Sterling | around division average32.0 | 41% | top 10% of division18.5 | 703 |
| Body | Aaron Pico | above division average11.6 | 80% | below division average12.6 | 16 |
| Body | Aljamain Sterling | top 11% of division19.0 | 71% | above division average9.0 | 443 |
| Leg | Aaron Pico | above division average8.8 | 100% | around division average7.9 | 11 |
| Leg | Aljamain Sterling | top 24% of division11.5 | 77% | around division average7.6 | 261 |
Per-15-minute rates are sourced from UFCStats fight totals across each fighter’s UFC career. Division percentile is computed against every UFC fighter who has competed in this weight class with at least two recorded bouts. Lower “absorbed” values are better — the percentile is inverted so “top of division” always means better outcome.
Grappling matchup
Takedowns, submission threat, and control. Per 15 minutes of UFC fight time, with takedown defense as a percentage of opponent attempts stopped.
Each metric graded on the division — the bar leans toward whoever wins that part of the grappling exchange (longer + greener = a bigger edge).
Pico has the grappling edge (+11).
Full breakdown — career grappling totals
| Metric | Aaron Pico | Aljamain Sterling |
|---|---|---|
| Takedowns landed / 15career takedowns | 6.58 | 2.556 |
| Takedown accuracycareer landed / attempted | 50%8 / 16 | 32%56 / 174 |
| Takedown defensecareer stopped / faced | —0 / 0 | 45%22 / 49 |
| Submission attempts / 15career attempts | 0.00 | 0.614 |
| Control time / 15 (min)career total | 4.4 min5:26 | 5.0 min109:33 |
| Time controlled by opponent / 15 (min)career total | 0.0 min0:00 | 2.5 min56:06 |
All rates computed from UFCStats fight totals across each fighter’s UFC career. Takedown defense = opponent attempts stopped ÷ opponent total attempts. Control time figures are minutes the fighter spent in a dominant position per 15 minutes of fight time. Accuracy under 8 career attempts is shown raw and ungraded — too small a sample to rate against the division.
Finishing & durability
How often each fighter ends fights early — and how often they get put away. Outcomes view, not per-minute output.
When their fights end
every pro finish on the fight clockFinish & durability rates
Full professional career
Full method breakdown
| Outcome | Aaron Pico | Aljamain Sterling |
|---|---|---|
| Wins | ||
| by KO / TKO | 9(64%) | 3(12%) |
| by submission | 2(14%) | 8(31%) |
| by decision | 3(21%) | 14(54%) |
| other | 0(0%) | 1(4%) |
| Losses | ||
| by KO / TKO | 4(80%) | 2(40%) |
| by submission | 1(20%) | 0(0%) |
| by decision | 0(0%) | 3(60%) |
| other | 0(0%) | 0(0%) |
Full professional career method splits, graded against the full-pro division distribution. Career KO losses are the total — clean knockouts and cut/injury stoppages can’t be separated outside the UFC corpus. Finish-time pace is UFC-only.
KO history
UFC fights only — knockout power and chin durability, head-to-head, then when the last finish landed, and on whom.
- Last time KO'dvs Lerone Murphy10 months agoUFC 319: Du Plessis vs. Chimaev · Aug 16, 2025 · R1 · 3:21
- Last time submittedNever submitted in the UFC
- Last time KO'dvs Sean O'Malley2y 10mo agoUFC 292: Sterling vs. O'Malley · Aug 19, 2023 · R2 · 0:51
- Last time submittedNever submitted in the UFC
Pace & fade
How each fighter's work rate holds up as a fight wears on — round-by-round output (striking, takedown attempts, and control time combined), and whether they fade. The fade % compares round-3 output to round 1 over bouts that reached the third round.
Sterling lifts to 114% of round-1 output by round 3 (within fights reaching round 3). Pico hasn't reached the third round in enough UFC bouts to read a pace pattern yet.
Faded points are drawn from a single bout that reached that round, so they’re less reliable than the solid points averaged over many fights.
Rounds backed by fewer than 2 bouts are drawn smaller and dimmed with an n= count — a deep round seen in one or two fights is a thin sample, not a settled rate. Per-round bout counts are in the breakdown below.
Full per-round breakdown — both fighters
What drives the pace · per round
The composite output line above blends these three inputs. Splitting them out shows whether a fighter’s work rate is built on striking volume, takedown pressure, or top control — and which input fades.
| Round | Fighter | Output / min | Sig landed / min | Sig absorbed / min | TD att / min | Control | Bouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Aaron Pico | 8.0 | 4.2 | 3.0 | 0.84 | 34% | 2 |
| R1 | Aljamain Sterling | 6.3 | 3.6 | 1.6 | 0.46 | 33% | 23 |
| R2 | Aaron Pico | 12.7 | 9.8 | 3.8 | 0.80 | 14% | 1 |
| R2 | Aljamain Sterling | 7.9 | 4.9 | 2.2 | 0.51 | 35% | 21 |
| R3 | Aaron Pico | 10.4 | 5.8 | 2.6 | 1.00 | 39% | 1 |
| R3 | Aljamain Sterling | 7.3 | 4.5 | 2.0 | 0.53 | 32% | 17 |
| R4 | Aaron Pico | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| R4 | Aljamain Sterling | 7.3 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 0.57 | 27% | 5 |
| R5 | Aaron Pico | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| R5 | Aljamain Sterling | 7.3 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 0.85 | 38% | 4 |
Output / minis the headline work rate — significant strikes landed, plus 3 per takedown attempt, plus one per 15 seconds of control — so a takedown-and-grind round isn’t scored as idle the way bare striking volume would. The remaining columns are its components. Per-round rates use UFCStats per-round data (available for ~95% of bouts since 2008). Each round’s rates are averaged only over bouts that reached that round, so the bout count shrinks as rounds deepen. The final round of a finished fight is pro-rated by its actual length — a 2:30 stoppage counts as 2.5 minutes, not five — so an early finish doesn’t distort the per-minute pace.