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Petr Yan has jestingly asserted that "acting" is longtime rival Aljamain Sterling's strong point. Yan also suggested that Sterling feigned being hurt by the infamous illegal knee in their UFC 259 fight in March.
'No Mercy' addressed the fight on the UFC 267 Countdown show. Harking back to the incident, he stated:
"His acting is his strong point... I was expecting him to get up, so I decided to kick him with a knee on a counter-movement. But he didn't want to get up. In fact, the blow wasn't that tough. It was obvious that he overplayed. He portrayed it as if he really got hit hard."
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Yan entered that fight as the reigning UFC bantamweight champion, and many believe he was well on his way to defeating Sterling. However, the Russian landed an illegal knee on 'The Funk Master' in round four of their fight.
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Aljamain Sterling was deemed unable to continue after the strike. As a result, Petr Yan was disqualified, and Sterling was declared the new UFC bantamweight champion.
You can watch Petr Yan's explanation in the video below:
Aljamain Sterling’s comeback timeline and Petr Yan vs. Cory Sandhagen
Aljamain Sterling has opened up about his UFC 267 rematch with Petr Yan falling apart. ‘The Funk Master’ revealed that he’s been dealing with severe neck injury issues and that he was unable to train the way he wanted to. Sterling said:
“I told the guys, I was like, 'Man, I don't know what's about to happen, I don't think I could pull out of this fight because if I do I'm gonna get a lot of s**t.' This is my personal opinion of what I'm thinking, I didn't know if the UFC would be happy. So I'm like I know it s**ks, it's a big fight. You know they want to get the division moving, it's a hot division... that was the most down I've been in a very long time, super depressed because that's how much this sport means to me.”
Regardless, Aljamain Sterling has reassured the MMA community that he aims to return to the octagon as soon as his health issues are behind him. The reigning UFC bantamweight champion noted that he could return in January or February of 2022.
Meanwhile, Petr Yan is set to face Cory Sandhagen for the interim UFC bantamweight title at UFC 267 on October 30. The winner of this matchup will receive the opportunity to fight Aljamain Sterling in a title unification matchup, likely in early 2022.
