Over the weekend, things got heated on a Twitter thread between UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt and Aljamain Sterling. Sterling spoke to FanSided MMA to explain his perspective.

Over the weekend, a Twitter conversation ensued between Aljamain Sterling and UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt. The beef between the two started when TMZ Sports released an article titled, “UFC’s Aljamain Sterling Says He’s Gonna Kill Cody Garbrandt.”

Sterling did not say those words during the interview. Regardless, the battle of tweets began between the two bantamweights and it seemed to go the way most Twitter conversations tend to happen in the sport of MMA.

Cody sliding in my DMs like a lil bitch-made hoe — Aljamain Sterling (@FunkMaster_UFC) August 13, 2017

Don't need to. We follow each other and he clearly looking up my tweets but he tried to downplay my win lol. Our time WILL come to scrap!! 💯 https://t.co/2OCEYliXdc — Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) August 13, 2017

https://twitter.com/Cody_Nolove/status/896924186790117376

And like I said I'll strangle you with that fake ass chain you wear!! https://t.co/vhHjw3Cbny — Cody Garbrandt (@Cody_Nolove) August 14, 2017

All seemed to be normal between two fighters on Twitter, until what Garbrandt said next started to open up a different road.

Wait in line boy — Cody Garbrandt (@Cody_Nolove) August 14, 2017

https://twitter.com/Cody_Nolove/status/896926672846372864

Unless you KKK stop calling me "boy" motherfucker. You liable to get ya shit beat in talking like that. Talk ya shit, don't be ass-hat https://t.co/avsGhVwIWD — Aljamain Sterling (@FunkMaster_UFC) August 14, 2017

Facts. Idk what kinda hill-billy shit he over there tweeting but that out of bounds. https://t.co/lEWxyEfmVN — Aljamain Sterling (@FunkMaster_UFC) August 14, 2017

Yea, I'm really tough for calling someone on talking like a racist POS. You try being black in America dickhead. FUCK YOU! https://t.co/iBiH5Wrrop — Aljamain Sterling (@FunkMaster_UFC) August 14, 2017

https://twitter.com/Cody_Nolove/status/896941256915304448

Throughout the thread, Sterling would respond to both Garbrandt and the fans who decided to give their opinions on the situation, even saying that Sterling is “race baiting.” Sterling is coming off of a unanimous decision win over former bantamweight champion Renan Barao at UFC 214, and is hoping to face Jimmie Rivera at UFC 217 in New York on Nov. 4.

Conor McGregor put himself in hot water by calling Floyd Mayweather “boy” during the build up to their fight on Aug. 26. In Sterling’s mind, as well as many others, whether the intent of using the word was for racist purposes or not, it is a word that should not have been used in either situation.

“This is always an uncomfortable topic for most people to grasp,” Sterling told FanSided MMA via the SFLC Podcast. “It’s uncomfortable because we’re the minority. We’ve been the ones who have been, predominantly through history, been put down, been oppressed and when people want to fast forward 100 or so years, they think that all of that stuff just disappears. This is where I’m coming from – as a young, black man who is trying to become successful in this world, people are going to say, ‘well, you’re American, you have the same rights and all this.’ Dude, there’s different levels to what are rights. You can’t ever empathize to what I have gone through growing up, just like I can’t empathize what anybody else has gone through growing up. You can only talk about what you know and your experiences. So for you to say, ‘I don’t see racism,’ it’s complete bulls–t and it’s complete ignorance. That’s the way I look at it.

“With Cody, and I know he’s following this, knowing that he saw the Conor McGregor-Floyd Mayweather thing where he said, ‘Dance for me, boy,’ that’s a monkey man thing to say to another person of color. That does not sit well with anybody of African-American descent. I think he should’ve known better, even if he had no intentions of using the words to mean it that way. He said it twice. I don’t know how to take that. He’s a white kid from Cleveland, Ohio. I don’t know sh-t about Cleveland, Ohio. I’ve been there. I’ve wrestled there. But I don’t know what the demographics are like over there, but where I’m from, I don’t know any white person walking around calling another black person ‘boy’ without any kind of racial connotations behind it. So when he said that, he said, ‘Wait in line, boy.’ I didn’t address it because there’s no way in hell that he’s stupid enough to use that term when he’s talking to me like that. Then, he asked TJ (Dillashaw), and then he asked me, said ‘then the boy can get it’, again. And I was like, ‘all right, now you’ve crossed the line.’ If he would’ve said this to TJ, and then said to me, I could’ve said, ‘OK, I’m reaching.’ But I’m not reaching. I have every right to feel the way I feel at him, the way that he said it. That’s what I tried to explain to him.”

According to Sterling, who was just promoted to brown belt in jiu-jitsu by his coach Matt Serra, the conversation did not end there.

“Then, he went and sent me another DM saying to cut out that racist bulls–t, don’t put yourself into a title shot by talking about race. I was like, ‘I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. You want to talk sh-t? Talk sh-t, that’s fine. That’s the name of this game. But don’t sit here and start using racial connotations and pretend to act like you’re dumb. Because you may be a blockhead, you may be a douchebag, but at the end of the day, you know what the f–k you said, and you know what the f–k you mean. So don’t sit there and play stupid.’ I just told him, ‘Stop f—–n writing me. Keep my name out your mouth.’

“The first thing he said that he was going to strangle me with my chain, and then he called me ‘boy’ twice. You sound kind of ridiculous right now. I told him, ‘if we switched places, and you’ve seen the things I have seen, maybe you wouldn’t be so quick to use these kinds of words.’ And people want to say, ‘that hasn’t meant that for years.’ What world do you live in? That 100-percent means the same exact thing. I still hear people talking like that, which makes me very uncomfortable because I don’t feel like I can go to these places. I’d rather not put myself in those situations to go be in those types of environments where it could possibly be hostile, or where something could possibly happen because of the color of my skin. It’s really kind of f—-d up, and for anybody to say that racism doesn’t exist, they either are living on Bikini Bottom or they just, I don’t know. There’s no other way to say it, it still exists, just be mindful of your words. If you want to talk s–t, talk s–t, but there’s a code when you’re talking s–t; you don’t bring up someone’s Mom, and you don’t bring in race. I never called him a racist. I never once said, ‘Cody, you are a racist.’ I said, ‘Cody, unless are a KKK affiliate or whatever, don’t use fu—n boy to talk s–t to me. That’s not cool.’ It’s as simple as that. So if people want to say I’m race baiting for correcting him, then guess what? I’m race baiting for being the guy correcting him, I’m sorry. But you know what? I’m not f—-n sorry. Go f–k yourself, how about that? Go look up history and see what the hell people go through, and what we still go through today, this very same day.”

Garbrandt became the UFC bantamweight champion after defeating Dominick Cruz by unanimous decision at UFC 207 back in December. When Sterling was asked if Garbrandt had reached out to attempt to apologize or explain where he was coming from when using the word, he said that wasn’t the case.

“No, he wrote me trying to say, ‘I put my hand around TJ’s neck. I’ve done worse things to him.’ What he was getting at was, what he said wasn’t that bad. So it should just be OK, and I should just let it go. I told him what I had to say, I said my peace, I said, ‘Dude, I’m done with this conversation, just stop f—-n writing me, bro. We’re not friends. I follow you because I try to keep up with what I need to see so that I can be in the mix, but outside of that, I have no intentions of being your friend. We don’t need to like each other, and that’s cool.’ I’ve got enough friends. Whatever, I can use a few enemies. How about that?”

Sterling says this is not about skipping the line, it is not about getting a shot at the title, this is trying to explain that racism still exists in 2017. Again, he is not saying Garbrandt is a racist, and never called him that, but as far as the conversation goes, as far as continuing the line of communication to rectify the situation, should Garbrandt attempt to clear the air, Sterling is done talking about it from here on out.

“I’m done with it all together,” Sterling said. “I’m not using this topic to promote myself by any means. It’s as simple as, you crossed the line, I corrected you, and somebody else said something before I got to see it because I was out, I had just played the basketball game, with Justin Bieber, Pressure, all of these celebrities hanging out, raising money for cancer, and then I see this s–t. It all started because TMZ wrote a click bait article saying I was going to kill Cody, but if you actually watched the video, you’ll see those words never came out of my mouth. But he came back and said he was going to strangle me with my chain. I said, ‘I ain’t TJ, if you put your hands on me, I guarantee you some s–t happens.’ There’s no bitch over here. That s–t you want to pull on TV where you grabbed him by his throat, you feel like a big dog and want to pump your chest, that s–t will not fly. I’m telling you 100 percent, it would turn ugly. It won’t turn into f—-n just a fist fight. You can call me crazy, you can say what you want about me, you don’t disrespect a man. You want to fight? Let’s fight. But, if you want to put your hands on me, don’t act like you’re f—-n all hood. Nah bro, I’ll shut that s–t down real quick. If you want to take it there, we can take it there.

“If you want to keep this professional and stay in your lane, let’s do that. But don’t sit there and start crossing boundaries. And outside of that, I have nothing else I want to say to the guy. I know he is the man right now because he has the belt, but that doesn’t give you the right to go out of your way to be a complete douchebag. That’s as far as this goes with me.”

Garbrandt is expected to defend his title against Dillashaw, and “No Love” got people buzzing when he tweeted out that the fight would happen at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 4. The UFC has yet to announce when the fight would take place, but if all goes according to what the champion, as well as Sterling is hoping for, you could see two big bantamweight bouts at ‘The World’s Most Famous Arena.’