Aljamain Sterling Breaks Down Why Fans Think He Acted After the Illegal Knee by Petr Yan at UFC 250

Posted on by Jim Smarts

 Aljamain Sterling takes on Petr Yan in what is the first defense of his bantamweight title at UFC 273 exactly one week from now. The fight had to be rescheduled multiple times due to injuries faced by Sterling. However, with the fight just a week away Sterling has the chance to secure a win and silence all the critics that have relentlessly trolled him ever since he won the belt at UFC 259. 

During their first encounter at UFC 259, Sterling admittedly was trailing on the scorecards. However, in the fourth round, Sterling was on one knee while Yan was standing in front of him, Yan then proceeded to knee Sterling right on his temple while he was a ‘downed’ opponent as defined by the rules of MMA. ‘Funkmaster’ bore the impact of the shot and was not given clearance by the doctors to continue which meant disqualification for Yan and hence Sterling was crowned the champion. 

 A fan account on Twitter posted a video of the shot with the caption, “Don’t know how anyone could watch this and think this knee wasn’t a fight-ending shot.” To which Sterling replied, “It’s wild that this is still questioned by a large amount of ppl. I think they’re more shocked I wasn’t lights out from it, so that ‘had to be’ an act.”

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Aljamain Sterling vs Petr Yan; a preview 

Petr Yan is one of the best strikers not just in the bantamweight division but in the UFC period. Sterling on the other hand, is extremely calculated and dangerous on the ground, which was on display when he choked out Cory Sandhagen inside the very first round at UFC 250.

Sterling has stated in interviews that he did not feel a 100% going into the fight, and still felt he had a decent amount of success in the wrestling department, which is something he will be looking to capitalize on this time around. Yan on the other hand will be hoping to do more of what he did the first time around as he was comfortably winning the fight. Who do you think takes the win? Let us know in the comments!