Aljamain Sterling thinks Petr Yan intentionally cheated in their bout and shouldn’t get an immediate rematch.
Sterling (20-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) captured the bantamweight title from Yan at UFC 259 after he was struck with an illegal knee which rendered him unable to continue.
Yan (15-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) claimed that he was too focused on Sterling’s hands when throwing the illegal strike to realize his mistake, but Sterling calls shenanigans. Though Yan lost his belt as a result of the disqualification, Sterling thinks the repercussions of Yan’s actions should have been even harsher.
“Any other sport when you do something intentionally illegal, you get suspended, you get fined, you get ejected from the game,” Sterling said at a recent media session in Las Vegas. “This guy is getting rewarded with a rematch, which I get is a big fight. But, it is like, we can just break the rules and nothing is ever going to happen to us. So I can just jump the octagon and nothing is ever going to happen to me. I can just go and fight another corner or push him after the bell and nothing is ever going to happen. It’s like, I feel like when you have rules for a reason, you kinda have to enforce them, or otherwise let’s just run them up.”
He continued, “I feel like his ass should have been suspended or something. Pay me some money for an illegal foul that might take years off of my career.”
Sterling has been accused of acting following the knee, and received criticism for posing with his belt on his teammates’ social media posts. Prior to the fight ending in Round 4, two judges had Yan up two rounds to one, whereas one judge had Sterling up, but the momentum was unquestionably starting to swing in Yan’s favor.
But the newly crowned champion says he is no longer affected by the negativity and has now started embracing his role as champion. Sterling is currently serving a medical suspension and hopes that he can get his lingering neck issue cleared before gearing up for the rematch sometime this year.
“They suspended me here in Nevada for 45 days, no contact, so I can’t do anything before that anyway,” Sterling said. “But I am having some issues with my neck again, so we’re just trying to figure out what the next step is going to be, if we’re going to try and push through one more training camp. Remember, this guy pulled out of the first fight in December, and I was planning on trying to get the surgery right after that, and then we had this fight, and I’m starting to deal with a little bit of muscle weakness in my left arm and a little bit of atrophy in my left tricep, and it sucks.”
To see the full media session with Sterling, check out the video below.
Aljamain Sterling questions why Petr Yan is being ‘rewarded’ with title rematch after illegal knee