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Aljamain Sterling

Sterling debuted in the UFC in February 2014 and Topps left him off every 2014 checklist — he is absent from 2014 Topps UFC Knockout and from the 200-card 2014 Topps UFC Champions — so his cardboard starts in 2015 with three rookie-year base cards inside ten months: Knockout #29 on 22 April 2015, Champions #54 on 28 October 2015, and Chronicles #227, a 2015-branded product that did not ship until February 2016. That April 2015 Knockout card is the one MMA Rookies calls his True Rookie, and it is a genuinely thin card: a 100-card base set with only Silver /199, Gold /99, Red /8 and a 1/1 Mat parallel behind it, and no Sterling autograph anywhere in the product. His signature does not appear until the Champions Fighter Autographs FA-AST that autumn, and the bulk of his championship-era cards are Panini, because he won and defended the bantamweight belt during the four years Topps did not hold the licence.

2015Rookie year
#29Rookie card
10Key cards
  • UFC debutFebruary 22, 2014 · UFC 170
  • DivisionsBantamweight · Featherweight
  • FromUniondale, New York, United States
Rookie card#29
01

The rookie case

#29
Rookie card · working pick Rookie disputed

2015 Topps UFC Knockout #29

Sterling's first card, from a 100-card set that Topps released on 22 April 2015 after skipping him entirely in 2014. The parallel structure is unusually short for a Topps UFC product of this era — Silver /199, Gold /99, Red /8 and a 1/1 Mat card, with nothing between /99 and /8 — so the Red is the card serious Sterling collectors chase. He has no autograph in the product at all, despite a 44-card Knockout Autographs checklist.

Where sources disagree

Which of the three 2015 base cards collectors call 'the' rookie is not settled. MMA Rookies picks Knockout #29 as the True Rookie and that matches the release order, but marketplace listings most often attach the RC tag to Chronicles #227 (Beckett marketplace item title '2015 Topps UFC Chronicles #227 Aljamain Sterling RC'; a COMC listing for the Black and White /188 parallel of the same card), while collectors.com titles the Champions Silver parallel a 'Rookie Year' card. SportsCardsPro's data panel answers 'No' to rookie card on all three (#29, #54 and #227), which is a data gap rather than a third opinion. Separately, no reachable source this research confirmed whether the 2015 Topps UFC products printed an RC logo on the card face, so the pick rests on release order plus MMA Rookies' designation rather than on a logo.

Commonly misidentified

Because all three 2015 base cards exist, a listing that says only 'Aljamain Sterling rookie' without naming the product is ambiguous between Knockout #29, Champions #54 and Chronicles #227 — three different cards from three different Topps sets, at three different numbers. Card #54 is also reused for other fighters in other products, so the year and brand always have to be read.

High confidence×1View sources & research
Rookie card case Card record
02

Key Sterling cards

10 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.

2015 Topps UFC Champions #54 Rookie
2015 Topps UFC Chronicles #227 Rookie
2017 Topps Chrome UFC #67
2021 Panini Prizm UFC #152
2021 Panini Select UFC #46
2022 Panini Prizm UFC #55
2024 Topps Chrome UFC #12
03

Card history

Sterling beat Cody Gibson at UFC 170 in February 2014 and went 3-0 in the UFC that year without a single card to show for it: the checklists for 2014 Topps UFC Knockout and the 200-card 2014 Topps UFC Champions contain no Sterling line in any base, insert, autograph or relic subset. Nothing earlier exists from the regional circuit either. His cardboard begins fourteen months after his UFC debut, and then arrives three times in ten months.

The three rookie-year base cards are 2015 Topps UFC Knockout #29 (22 April 2015), 2015 Topps UFC Champions #54 (28 October 2015) and 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles #227, a 2015-branded product that did not ship until 3 February 2016. Which one is 'the' rookie is genuinely unsettled: MMA Rookies calls Knockout #29 his True Rookie Card and release order agrees, but marketplace listings most often attach the RC tag to Chronicles #227, while SportsCardsPro's data panel answers 'No' on all three. The Knockout rookie is a thin card by Topps standards — a 100-card set with only Silver /199, Gold /99, Red /8 and a 1/1 Mat parallel, nothing between /99 and /8. Collectors who want a numbered rookie-year Sterling usually go to Champions #54 instead, which runs Black /188, Blue /88, Gold /25, Red /8 and Platinum 1/1, or to Chronicles #227, deepest of the three at Green /288 down to a Sepia 1/1.

There is no Sterling autograph in Knockout at all, despite its 44-card autograph checklist, so his first certified signature is 2015 Topps UFC Champions Fighter Autographs #FA-AST, from a 73-fighter subset, unnumbered with a Red /8 above it. The same product carries the scarcer Fighting's Future Autographs #FF-AS numbered to 25, and Chronicles added #CA-AST the following February. Chrome followed in 2017: Topps UFC Chrome #67, released 20 September 2017, gave him his first full refractor rainbow — Refractor, X-Fractor, a Diamond hot-box card, Green /99, Blue Wave /75, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10 and Red /5 — which is the rainbow bantamweight collectors actually work on, since his rookie-year cards stop at a /8. He returns in 2018 Topps Chrome at #13.

He won the bantamweight title from Petr Yan by disqualification at UFC 259 on 6 March 2021, seven weeks before Panini's first licensed Prizm UFC, so his whole championship run is printed by Panini rather than Topps. Prizm #152 puts him in the horizontal half of the base set with the full colour run to Black 1/1, and nothing else — no autograph, no insert. Select UFC on 30 July 2021 prints him three times at three tiers, Concourse #46, Premier Level #151 and short-printed Octagonside #206, plus a Select Grapplers insert, apt for a man who took the belt with his wrestling. 2022 Prizm, out 25 March 2022 three weeks before the Yan rematch, moved him to the vertical half at #55 with Fearless and Fireworks inserts and the scarce FOTL shimmer parallels, Blue /7, Gold /5 and Black 1/1.

Topps came back with the licence in March 2024 and put him at base #12 in Topps Chrome UFC with four inserts — Allen & Ginter, Energized, Fired Up and Generation Now — and, unusually for him, three autograph subsets in one release: Main Event Autographs #MEA-AST at roughly 1:38 hobby packs, Chrome Veteran Autographs #CVA-AST and Mark of Champions Autographs #MOC-AST, the last seen numbered to 150. That single product roughly tripled his Topps signature supply after nine years with none, and a Gallery Graphs autograph followed in 2024 Topps UFC Knockout. By the time it all shipped he had lost the belt to Sean O'Malley and moved up to featherweight.

Sources for every paragraph

04

Autographs

2 certified autographs in the archive.

2015Topps UFC Champions Fighter Autographs #FA-AST Auto
2024Topps Chrome UFC Main Event Autographs #MEA-AST Auto
05

Card eras

2014
A UFC debut with no cards

Sterling beat Cody Gibson at UFC 170 on 22 February 2014 and went 3-0 in the UFC that year, but Cardboard Connection's checklists for 2014 Topps UFC Knockout and the 200-card 2014 Topps UFC Champions contain no Sterling entry in any base, insert, autograph or relic subset. There is no Sterling cardboard from his debut year.

2015
Three rookie-year base cards

Topps put him in all three of its 2015 UFC products: Knockout #29 (22 April 2015), Champions #54 (28 October 2015) and Chronicles #227, the 275-card set Cardboard Connection dates to 3 February 2016. Only Champions and Chronicles carry a Sterling autograph — Knockout's 44-card autograph checklist skips him entirely.

2015
First certified autograph

2015 Topps UFC Champions Fighter Autographs #FA-AST is his first signed card, from a 73-fighter autograph checklist with Red /8 and Platinum 1/1 parallels. The same product also lists him in Fighting's Future as insert #FF-AS and in Fighting's Future Autographs #FF-AS numbered /25, which is the scarcer of his two Champions signatures.

2017
First chrome

2017 Topps UFC Chrome #67, released 20 September 2017, is his first chrome card and his first full refractor rainbow: Refractor, X-Fractor, Diamond hot-box, Green /99, Blue Wave /75, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10, Red /5, SuperFractor 1/1 and Printing Plates. He returns in 2018 Topps Chrome UFC at #13.

2021
Champion, and the Panini years

Sterling took the bantamweight title from Petr Yan by disqualification at UFC 259 on 6 March 2021, seven weeks before Panini's first licensed UFC Prizm. He is base #152 in the horizontal half of 2021 Panini Prizm UFC (28 April 2021) and appears three times over in 2021 Panini Select UFC (30 July 2021) — Concourse #46, Premier Level #151, Octagonside #206 — plus the Select Grapplers insert.

2022
Title reign on Panini cardboard

2022 Panini Prizm UFC (25 March 2022) has him at base #55 in the vertical half with Fearless #12 and Fireworks #15, and the full Prizm colour run up to Black 1/1 and the FOTL shimmer parallels. This is the period of the Yan rematch, the Dillashaw defence and the Cejudo defence, all of it printed by Panini rather than Topps.

2024
Topps returns and finally signs him

Topps regained the UFC licence for 2024 and put Sterling at base #12 in 2024 Topps Chrome UFC alongside three separate autograph subsets — Chrome Veteran Autographs #CVA-AST, Main Event Autographs #MEA-AST and Mark of Champions Autographs #MOC-AST — plus four inserts. He also has a 2024 Topps UFC Knockout Gallery Graphs autograph #GYG-ASG, by which point he had moved up to featherweight.

06

Rookie parallels

Base
—
Unnumbered
Silver
/199
Verified
Gold
/99
Verified
Red
/8
Verified
Mat
1/1
Probable
07

Sets

Where Sterling's key cards come from.

08

Buying & wanted

Wanted by FightCardboard
  • 012015 Topps UFC Knockout #29 Red parallel /8 — the scarcest numbered version of his True Rookie Card
  • 022015 Topps UFC Champions Fighting's Future Autographs #FF-AS /25, his lowest-numbered early autograph
  • 032015 Topps UFC Chronicles #227 Sepia 1/1, or the Gold /88 from the same rookie-year base card
  • 042017 Topps UFC Chrome #67 Red Refractor /5, the low end of his first refractor rainbow
  • 052024 Topps Chrome UFC Mark of Champions Autographs #MOC-AST, his signature on a subset built around title holders

Offer one

Available here

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Sources & research Verified×5High confidence×10Probable×1

Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.

High confidence

Aljamain Sterling's rookie card: 2015 Topps UFC Knockout #29 — Aljamain Sterling.

MMA Rookies names 2015 Topps UFC Knockout #29 his True Rookie Card and lists 2015 Topps UFC Champions #54 and 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles #227 as the other rookies. Release dates back that order up: Cardboard Connection dates Knockout to 22 April 2015, Champions to 28 October 2015 and Chronicles to 3 February 2016, so Knockout is the first Sterling card of any kind. Nothing earlier exists — Cardboard Connection's checklists for 2014 Topps UFC Knockout and 2014 Topps UFC Champions have no Sterling line anywhere despite his February 2014 UFC debut, and no pre-UFC regional or non-MMA issue surfaced. SportsCardsPro confirms the number and the Silver /199, Gold /99 and Red /8 parallels.

High confidence

Sterling beat Cody Gibson at UFC 170 in February 2014 and went 3-0 in the UFC that year without a single card to show for it: the checklists for 2014 Topps UFC Knockout and the 200-card 2014 Topps UFC Champions contain no Sterling line in any base, insert, autograph or relic subset. Nothing earlier exists from the regional circuit either. His cardboard begins fourteen months after his UFC debut, and then arrives three times in ten months.

High confidence

The three rookie-year base cards are 2015 Topps UFC Knockout #29 (22 April 2015), 2015 Topps UFC Champions #54 (28 October 2015) and 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles #227, a 2015-branded product that did not ship until 3 February 2016. Which one is 'the' rookie is genuinely unsettled: MMA Rookies calls Knockout #29 his True Rookie Card and release order agrees, but marketplace listings most often attach the RC tag to Chronicles #227, while SportsCardsPro's data panel answers 'No' on all three. The Knockout rookie is a thin card by Topps standards — a 100-card set with only Silver /199, Gold /99, Red /8 and a 1/1 Mat parallel, nothing between /99 and /8. Collectors who want a numbered rookie-year Sterling usually go to Champions #54 instead, which runs Black /188, Blue /88, Gold /25, Red /8 and Platinum 1/1, or to Chronicles #227, deepest of the three at Green /288 down to a Sepia 1/1.

High confidence

There is no Sterling autograph in Knockout at all, despite its 44-card autograph checklist, so his first certified signature is 2015 Topps UFC Champions Fighter Autographs #FA-AST, from a 73-fighter subset, unnumbered with a Red /8 above it. The same product carries the scarcer Fighting's Future Autographs #FF-AS numbered to 25, and Chronicles added #CA-AST the following February. Chrome followed in 2017: Topps UFC Chrome #67, released 20 September 2017, gave him his first full refractor rainbow — Refractor, X-Fractor, a Diamond hot-box card, Green /99, Blue Wave /75, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10 and Red /5 — which is the rainbow bantamweight collectors actually work on, since his rookie-year cards stop at a /8. He returns in 2018 Topps Chrome at #13.

High confidence

He won the bantamweight title from Petr Yan by disqualification at UFC 259 on 6 March 2021, seven weeks before Panini's first licensed Prizm UFC, so his whole championship run is printed by Panini rather than Topps. Prizm #152 puts him in the horizontal half of the base set with the full colour run to Black 1/1, and nothing else — no autograph, no insert. Select UFC on 30 July 2021 prints him three times at three tiers, Concourse #46, Premier Level #151 and short-printed Octagonside #206, plus a Select Grapplers insert, apt for a man who took the belt with his wrestling. 2022 Prizm, out 25 March 2022 three weeks before the Yan rematch, moved him to the vertical half at #55 with Fearless and Fireworks inserts and the scarce FOTL shimmer parallels, Blue /7, Gold /5 and Black 1/1.

High confidence

Topps came back with the licence in March 2024 and put him at base #12 in Topps Chrome UFC with four inserts — Allen & Ginter, Energized, Fired Up and Generation Now — and, unusually for him, three autograph subsets in one release: Main Event Autographs #MEA-AST at roughly 1:38 hobby packs, Chrome Veteran Autographs #CVA-AST and Mark of Champions Autographs #MOC-AST, the last seen numbered to 150. That single product roughly tripled his Topps signature supply after nine years with none, and a Gallery Graphs autograph followed in 2024 Topps UFC Knockout. By the time it all shipped he had lost the belt to Sean O'Malley and moved up to featherweight.

Verified

2015 Topps UFC Knockout #29 — Aljamain Sterling.

Verified

2015 Topps UFC Champions #54 — Aljamain Sterling.

High confidence

2015 Topps UFC Champions Fighter Autographs #FA-AST — Aljamain Sterling.

Verified

2015 Topps UFC Chronicles #227 — Aljamain Sterling.

Verified

2017 Topps Chrome UFC #67 — Aljamain Sterling.

High confidence

2021 Panini Prizm UFC #152 — Aljamain Sterling.

Probable

2021 Panini Select UFC #46 — Aljamain Sterling.

Verified

2022 Panini Prizm UFC #55 — Aljamain Sterling.

High confidence

2024 Topps Chrome UFC #12 — Aljamain Sterling.

High confidence

2024 Topps Chrome UFC Main Event Autographs #MEA-AST — Aljamain Sterling.