Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan first met back at UFC 259 in March of 2021, when Yan was looking to defend his belt for the first time. The fight was competitive but as it went on, Yan was starting to pull away until he threw an illegal knee to Sterling’s head. After ‘Funkmaster’ couldn’t continue, Yan was disqualified leaving Sterling to win the belt by DQ.
Sterling believes he will dominate Yan at UFC 273 to defend his bantamweight title. Aljio gathered up a lot of haters down the line as they collectively believed that he had just put on a show to win the title. Even if he did, Aljio earned the title by taking that illegal knee to his face when he was down.
Aljio shows his side of logic on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, saying that Yan completely knew what he was doing and did so because of frustration. Sterling pointed out that Yan was frustrated since he didn’t probably want to go to the ground with Aljio considering what happened with Sandhagen.
Sterling has full confidence as to what he is going to do with Yan, says “I’m going to be a fuc**ng hammer in there and there’s going to be a big difference when this guy can’t get me off of him on the cage or when he’s down on his back. This time I’m not going to throw stupid hammer fists because I got brain fog, Imma take him down, control the wrists, pass his guard, throw the hooks in, smash this guy and choke him the f**k out”
“I think Yan is just kind of a better all-around competitor” Cory Sandhagen picks between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan
The undisputed bantamweight bout will have its winner picked soon enough but the MMA casuals have spoken too soon. The odds for Petr is a -425 and Aljio has a +315 on him. Cory ‘The Sandman’ Sandhagen takes his pick on who he thinks would come out as the undisputed winner and also will reign over the bantamweight division.
After losing his belt to Sterling via disqualification, Yan went on to defeat Sandhagen in a Fight of the Night battle at UFC 267 to capture a piece of his title back. Sandhagen who also suffered a quick R1 submission loss to Sterling gave his opinion as he had fought both the fighters even though he didn’t get to see a full display of Aljio’s arsenal.
Sandhagen picks Yan since he is a more well rounded fighter compared to Sterling. “I think Yan is likely the more well-rounded guy, but I think if Yan goes in thinking that he’s just gonna crush him because of the way that the last fight went, I think that would be a huge mistake on Yan’s part”
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