UFC bantamweight superstars Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan nearly came to blows, after the Russian had declared it was on sight with his rival’s team
UFC 273 features a bantamweight title rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan. The pair have engaged in several Twitter banters leading up to the fight, and kept the same intensity during the ceremonial press conference.
UFC 273 press conference missed the usual fighter face-off ahead of the ceremonial weigh-ins. Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski decided to engage in an impromptu stared down with The Korean Zombie, which fired up both Yan and Sterling. The pair attempted to square off but were obstructed by security on stage.
Following Friday’s weigh-ins, Sterling and Yan stumbled upon each other backstage along with their respective teams and things escalated. Each side has talked trash during fight week so tensions were understandably high. Sterling’s teammates, UFC fighters Merab Dvalishvili and Al Iaquinta, were quick to get in the mix.
Henry Cejudo and Sean O’Malley reject Petr Yan’s offer to corner him at UFC 273
Yan had appealed Henry Cejudo and Sean O’Malley to be a part of his corner team. However, he had specific roles set out for them – ice him and bring him water in between rounds. This was reconcilable with Cejudo’s idea, who likes to be invested completely when he corners someone.
Cejudo responded to Yan’s latest interview where he proposed the idea again. He responded to it on Twitter by saying,
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
Sean O’Malley joined Cejudo in declining Yan’s idea, by saying that he would rather square up against the Russian in the future. O’Malley has constantly maintained that his dream fight in the division would be a fight against Petr Yan for the bantamweight title.
He had even mentioned it several times in past interviews that Yan is one of his favorite fighters to watch and that he would relish the prospect of a competition against him. Speaking on the TimboSugaShow, he said,
“Yeah, I’m not going to corner that fcking dude. I don’t care if he wins, I do like Petr though, he’s a funny little dude in person. [laughs] I just want to fcking square up with him, y’know. Maybe, I don’t know.”
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