Aljamain Sterling was recently submitted in a friendly grappling match with Russian MMA veteran Marif Piraev that took part during the filming of the latest season of the popular Russian reality show, ALF Global Reality. It was obviously not an official professional match and it appears as though it was pretty impromptu, as the two men decided to face each other in the cage in front of the rest of the cast. Sterling was in attendance as a coach rather than a fighter and he was doing so opposite a man he’s already beaten twice in his career, Petr Yan.
It isn’t the first time that footage has gone viral of Sterling’s time on the show either, as he appears to have been choked out when another member of the cast surprised him with a rear-naked choke when he wasn’t aware. This time around it was at least a completely fair match though, as both Sterling and Piraev were willing competitors. Although Sterling is a former UFC world champion with years of wrestling experience and even some professional Jiu-Jitsu matches under his belt, Piraev is not exactly an easy opponent. In fact, Piraev is one of the most experienced fighters on the Russian MMA circuit.
Piraev has had dozens of professional fights and his MMA record currently stands at 33-5-1, along with several bare-knuckle boxing and modified rules fights. He’s a skilled and well-rounded fighter but his grappling in particular is very impressive, so it’s no surprise that he can go head-to-head with Sterling. Piraev has 15 wins by submission and has never been submitted himself in MMA, although Sterling has also never been submitted. The footage of the match between them is only shown in clips, but Piraev can be seen landing a clean takedown and eventually submitting Sterling with a head and arm choke from the bottom.
ALF Global Reality shared the footage of Aljamain Sterling getting submitted in the grappling match in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
