“It’s Just Too Much Illegal Activity for Me to Be Involved In”- Henry Cejudo Rejects Cornerman Role for Petr Yan at UFC 273

Posted on by Jim Smarts

Petr Yan takes on Aljamain Sterling in a bantamweight title unification bout this Saturday at UFC 273. Yan is the current interim bantamweight champion, while Sterling is the undisputed champion. The two men first faced each other at UFC 259 almost a year ago in March 2021. The fight ended in a rather unfortunate manner when an illegal knee by Yan resulted in a disqualification for him after Sterling failed to clear the doctor’s checks. 

Following the win, Sterling had to undergo neck surgery due to which he has been out for a year. The UFC tired to book the fight between Sterling and Yan a few times but ‘Funkmaster’ pulled out of the fight due to the same lingering injury. 

Going into the fight, Yan will be without his team in his corner. Visa issues for his team meant that they could not travel to the United States for the fight. Since Yan does not have anyone to corner him, he requested the help of Sean O’Malley and Henry Cejudo as cornermen for UFC 273.

This offer was not well received by Cejudo who tweeted, “Sorry buddy I ain’t nobody’s Waterboy! Between your knees and O’Malley’s steroids…it’s just too much illegal activity for me to be involved in. #bendthekneepotatoface @PetrYanUFC.”

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Yan heads into the fight, confident of his performance against Sterling the first time out. The Russian fighter was winning the fight up until he landed the knee. He had the better striking during the fight and was able to keep the fight on the feet where he excels. 

Although not having his cornermen during fight week will be a big blow, Yan mentioned on the Ariel Helwani show that he has found trustworthy replacements for his cornermen. Yan is also currently training at American Top Team in Florida with some of the best in the business. It will be interesting to see how the second fight plays out given Yan has been the more active of the two fighters over the last year.