Aljamain Sterling had some rare praise for his bantamweight rival, Petr Yan, in the aftermath of his interim title fight against Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267.
‘The Funk Master’ infamously became the first person to become a UFC champion by way of disqualification earlier this year. Yan appeared well on his way to defending his 135lb title before he landed a flush illegal knee to the face of Sterling in round four. The American was unable to continue fighting and subsequently Yan was disqualified from the bout.
Ever since then, the two men have been going back and forth at each other in interviews and on social media. They were supposed to settle the score at UFC 267 but unfortunately, Sterling was forced out of the bout as he continues to recover from a recent neck surgery.
As a result of Sterling’s withdrawal from the UFC 267 co-main event, Yan faced Sandhagen for the interim 135lb belt. The pair went at it for five rounds in what was the Fight of the Night at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Yan walked away with the unanimous decision win and a secondary 135lb belt.
Aljamain Sterling Gives Props To Petr Yan After His Interim Title Win
Post-fight, Aljamain Sterling took to his YouTube channel to recap the UFC 267 co-main event and was full of praise for the way Yan fought against Sandhagen.
“He did a great job of walking him down,” Sterling said. “That defense is very, very tight, very technical. He does a good job of looking through the eyebrows – just touching, slight parries, so every time you throw a jab, he just catches it, catches it nice and clean where almost nothing gets by. When Cory started to do a good job of trying to step in with the elbows, I was like, ‘This is a little bit too late, but it’s a good idea.’ It’s a good thing for other people to see. Even myself.
“I was like, ‘Oh, that was pretty crafty of a switch-up,’ but it’s kind of late in the fight to try and go that route at this point where you don’t have much pop in your punches or much juice left in the gas tank after a hard, 20-minute fight and you still have the last five minutes to go. Sandhagen cuts him off, he attacks the body with clean body kicks. Cory trying to poker face it, played a little game of, ‘Oh that was nothing,’ showing the abs like, ‘Ah, I can eat that.’ But eventually, those wear you down.”
Sterling is hoping he will get the chance to rematch Yan and unify the division in the first quarter of 2022.
“Yan fought a beautiful fight,” Sterling said. “I got the surgery. I still need a little bit more time. I’m aiming for January, February. … I’ll be at MSG – obviously UFC 268 is this weekend. I’m going to be there. Hopefully we get to talk it out and put something solid together and really get on the same page so we can all get ready to unify this belt and give the fans the fight that they deserve – the two best guys in the weight class really going at it, at their best, not one guy coming in a shell of himself at like 50, 60 percent, gassing out after five minutes of combat. That’s not good. I want to give you guys the show that you deserve. Yan and Sandhagen delivered. That’s what I want do for you guys.” (Transcribed by MMA Junkie)
Are you surprised to hear Aljamain Sterling speak so highly of Petr Yan?