Aljamain Sterling was not impressed with the illegal knee from Petr Yan at UFC 259
Aljamain Sterling won Bantamweight gold at UFC 259 but it didn’t come as he had wanted.
Petr Yan, the champion, was dominating his rival in the third fight of the main card. However, the Russian decided to use an illegal knee and there was a lot of controversy about that.
Sterling was already a downed opponent and the knee connected flush on his head. The challenger could not continue and won the title by DQ.
Winning the title would have been a glorious moment for any UFC fighter but Sterling was clearly disgusted with all that had happened.
He threw the belt down and even spoke to Joe Rogan after the fight. It looked like Sterling was concussed but he blasted Yan for what all had happened.
Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan respond to illegal knee
Yan spoke to the reporters after the fight and confirmed he didn’t know that his strike was illegal.
He confirmed he made a mistake and posted an apology to Sterling on social media.
“I apologize and wish speedy recovery to @funkmasterMMA
“I didn’t mean to throw an illegal strike, I just made a big mistake and paid for it.”
Sterling also responded to what had transpired at UFC 259. However, he was open to a rematch with Yan in the future
“Not the way I ever want to win a fight. It was close, competitive and filled with action. I felt the knee was intentional, especially after the ref announced I was a downed opponent, so I didn’t expect to be hit.
“Yan is a bad dude! WE WILL DO IT AGAIN!”
This was a huge error from Yan and there was confirmation that his coaching team told him to hit Yan when he was down.
Many UFC stars blasted Yan and his team for this error. Kneeing a downed opponent is one of the few strikes that cannot be performed in the UFC and it was criminal for the team to forget that.
It was even more shocking since Yan was dominating Sterling during the fight and it will be interesting to see if the UFC decides to hold a rematch soon.
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