It’s been three months short months since Aljamain Sterling lost to Bryan Caraway at UFC Fight Night 88, but it seems the UFC bantamweight has studied his defeat in detail and learned some valuable lessons.

Joining Matt Serra and Renzo Gracie on the UFC Unfiltered Podcast earlier this week, Sterling talked about some of the mistakes he made in his fight with Caraway and immediately drew attention to the first round where he took Caraway’s back and attempted a modified full nelson hold submission.

Sterling described how the energy he expended attempting the submission hampered him for the rest of the fight.

“My arms just felt really heavy after I went for the full nelson,” Sterling said. “I just got really excited in that first round thinking, ‘Man, no one has ever done a submission like this, this is going to be crazy’.”

Having tired out his arms in the first round, Sterling then pointed out two decisions he made in the second and third that saw him get taken down and essentially lose the fight on the scorecards.

“It was right when we got in the clinch and I went for a shoulder lock,” Sterling said. “If I’d gone for a kimura lock that would’ve been like a higher percentage move, but I tried the shoulder lock on him where I didn’t have control of anything.

“I’d been getting away with it with some of the guys that weren’t so good, but I just tried it on him and it didn’t really work out in my favor. It happened twice.”

While the defeat was tough to take in the immediate aftermath, Sterling now feels like he has learned some important lessons and that a few minor adjustments to his decision making will make all the difference.

“Listen, that last fight really let me know where I was at, especially that first round,” Sterling said. “I just had a couple of technical things I had to adjust, just based on fight IQ and knowing when to get fancy and when to just go for the basic stuff and high percentage moves.”

Sterling then made it known what he wants his next move to be—to fight alongside his fellow Serra-Longo training parts on the first ever UFC show in New York City on November 12.

“I want Dana White to know that I’m looking for a fight right now,” Sterling said. “UFC, MSG, November 12, I want to be on the New York card with my Serra-Longo brothers. Chris Weidman, Gian Villante, Al Iaquinta. I think this is going to be a historic event and I don’t think there is going to be another time when we all get to fight with each other on the same card.

“I want to fight Raphael Assuncao or Michael McDonald. Those are the two fights that I think make sense for me right now. I think if I beat Raphael I think it puts me right back in title contention. I think if I beat a former title challenger in Michael McDonald then I still think it puts me back in the mix. Those are the guys I want man.”