>> That's mentally draining.
>> Interviewer: This brings back a lot of stuff?
>> Yeah.
[dramatic theme music]
♪♪
>> Bruce Buffer: Aljamain Sterling!
♪♪
>> Help me!
♪♪
[vacuum running]
[melancholic music]
♪♪
>> I felt like I was very mature
at a very young age.
Because I come from a very big family.
A lot of half brothers and sisters.
>> It was my mom's eight kids
and then my dad's other kids
which just like about six other siblings.
>> Aljamain: We grew up in Roosevelt.
Space was tight, you know.
It's not like you had-- we're living in a mansion.
My mom and my dad, both from Jamaica
and did what they had to do to make ends meet.
♪♪
I'd see my mom needing help.
Seeing her struggle with things.
My main priority was just making sure the house
was in order whenever I was told to do so.
♪♪
>> Sophia Sterling: I would say for about five,
he would get up and he would clean,
make sure everything is clean,
everything put back in order.
>> Aljamain: Waking up, making sure my brothers
and sisters are brushing their teeth the right way.
♪♪
Making sure I'm walking with them to school,
holding their hands.
♪♪
>> Troy Sterling: Aljamain was very big in,
like, enforcing those rules
with me and my younger sisters.
Like, doing the dishes,
making sure we clean the bathroom.
He was very big on, like, making sure
we got stuff done around the house.
♪♪
>> Sofira: I thought it was more like bossy.
Like, trying to be my dad.
As I got older, I realize he's more of just, like, a--
I guess just like a good older brother.
Like, very protective, very responsible.
♪♪
>> I would help wash the dishes.
You're talking this six, seven year old kid
washing pots and pans.
♪♪
You could say I was kind of a mama's boy, you know,
so anything she wanted me to do,
I pretty much did it.
[dramatic music]
♪♪
[distant yelling]
♪♪
>> I don't have a lot of positive memories of my dad.
♪♪
He made us feel small.
♪♪
Weak, stupid, useless.
♪♪
My dad always called me a little man of the house.
♪♪
>> He will call him little man, and I know
that probably doesn't sound like an insult.
But it was something to like, belittle him.
>> Troy: With my dad, my brother had to deal with a lot.
He got the worst of it all.
♪♪
>> One of the things about him that
I don't think I could ever forgive
is the domestic violence with my mom.
♪♪
>> It's kind of hard to talk about.
♪♪
>> There was one time
they were fighting in the kitchen and...
[screaming]
>> Aljamain: ...my dad was beating my mom up and...
[screaming]
♪♪
>> I remember him going outside like trying to leave.
Coming back.
♪♪
Going for a knife.
[distant yelling]
♪♪
>> I just remember her calling for me.
>> Aljamain, help me!
♪♪
Help me!
♪♪
>> Just hearing her voice call for me
screaming in pain like that,
in a voice pretty much gone.
>> Help me!
Help me!
♪♪
>> It was scary.
It was fucked up.
♪♪
[sighs]
I forget about that stuff, you know?
So.
I don't really look back at my past a lot,
you know, so.
[melancholic music]
♪♪
I wasn't there for her to help her...
in physical situations that she...
needed help.
Because I just wasn't strong enough for that.
♪♪
>> Aljamain.
[sighs]
♪♪
I just want to tell you that I'm sorry,
and you have nothing to blame yourself about.
♪♪
It's not your fault.
♪♪
>> That's the one thing I, you know,
I would always never forgive him for,
because he-- I felt like he really--
he really broke a lot of us.
>> We would go in the room, turn up the music,
and just kind of like tune it out.
But then sometimes it's so bad,
you can't really tune it out.
[distant yelling]
♪♪
>> Sophia: My dream was hopefully one day,
they get older,
and they end up having a better life than this.
♪♪
>> Aljamain: I was just a broken kid, you know.
With no direction.
♪♪
I found wrestling and that helped change
the course of my life.
[dramatic music]
♪♪
One of my best friends kept pushing me to come out
and I eventually came out.
To see the bond that those guys have.
Having that camaraderie that I didn't have.
It felt more like a family to me.
♪♪
I felt like I actually mattered.
I felt like I belonged.
♪♪
Having that, I think it helped chip away
at that shell,
and making me just a little bit more confident
in myself and what I was able to do as a person.
That was what I needed.
♪♪
When I joined the sport, you know, my dad would try to not
make us go to the wrestling matches.
♪♪
>> Sofira: He would tell him wrestling was a waste of time
and that it was like a homosexual sport.
No straight man is gonna be wrestling another straight man.
♪♪
>> [laughing]
>> My dad thought I was weak.
♪♪
Not tough, the small guy.
♪♪
I was that guy for a while
until I slowly but surely gained my confidence.
[hopeful dramatic music]
♪♪
I would just stay at the school
putting in extra work.
♪♪
So I could stay out of the house.
>> He was very just self driven, self motivated.
♪♪
Part of that drive was just anger
and kind of just like trying to prove a point
where, you know, "Dad, I can do this without you.
I can do this on my own."
♪♪
>> Aljamain: I made it to the county tournament,
and my mom actually came out to the match.
♪♪
>> He was basically the number one kid in the county.
>> Aljamain: All these eyes on you is very nerve racking.
This is it.
♪♪
I'm either going to fold
or I'm going to fight back and show what I made of.
Show myself that
I'm willing to push through the hurt,
push through the pain.
♪♪
I get to release that side of me.
[rhythmic clapping]
♪♪
>> It was very hard for me to watch.
♪♪
You can see all that aggressiveness coming out.
♪♪
>> Troy: And Aljo just completely put it on him.
♪♪
>> Aljamain: If I'm winning the match,
the woos are crescendoing
and getting louder, getting louder,
and getting louder.
In my head, I'm saying, "Holy crap, this is unreal.
All the hard work is paying off.
All these things I did.
This is me.
No one can take that away from me."
♪♪
I beat him and I beat him decisively.
♪♪
>> Sophia: I started to scream.
♪♪
It does make me feel good.
Real good inside.
♪♪
>> Bruce: Aljamain "Funk Master" Sterling!
[cheering]
♪♪
>> The same person being able to still accomplish
what he has, regardless of circumstance,
I'm definitely probably proud of him.
♪♪
>> Joe: Oh, he's under the chin!
>> Jon: Now he's gonna tap!
[yelling]
>> Sofira: Looking at all the past trauma that he's experienced
to where he is now,
he's already a champ.
[cheering]
♪♪
>> Rebecca: He could have became a very closed off,
angry person.
"Screw this.
Screw the world.
This is how my life was set up.
This is how I'm supposed to live."
But he didn't.
You can't break him.
♪♪
>> Brendan: Oh, what a statement!
♪♪
>> Aljamain: I bring a lot of raw emotion
that's just different.
I feel like I just bring a different energy
because there's just so much in me
that I battle to do the preparation,
to make the walk.
To have the confidence to do those things.
♪♪
When I step in the octagon,
I feel free of fear,
free of self doubt,
free of all these things.
♪♪
Belt, no belt.
I feel I'm a winner.
♪♪
I'm not broken.
[echoing "Not broken"]
[cheering]
♪♪