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Aljamain Sterling wasn't pleased with the UFC's decision to reward Petr Yan by adding a ruby to his interim belt. The honor came after the Russian defeated Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267 last month.
In 2019, the Dana White-led promotion introduced the legacy championship belt system. That included the addition of a ruby to the champions' belts after a successful title defense. Yan, of course, lost the bantamweight championship to Sterling via disqualification in March this year.
Sterling recently had a conversation with Michael Bisping, where the Englishman informed him that Yan received his first ruby from the UFC following October's Abu Dhabi event. Reacting to the news, the 135-pound champion said his rival shouldn't be getting honored for "breaking the rules."
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"For what? For what? So if you break the rules, you should get awarded for breaking the rules because what? It's a combat sport versus a regular sport because you're playing with toys or playing with the ball? What's the difference? It's a sport. At the end of the day, we agree to a set of rules. It's not ONE FC. If it was, I would have pulled guard. 'Okay, I gotta go to my back because if I stay here, I'm gonna get kneed in the fu****g head.' At the end of the day, I'm playing within the rule set. That's the game we signed up for."
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Catch Aljamain Sterling's comments in the video below (3:07):
Aljamain Sterling is eyeing a return in early 2022
Aljamain Sterling plans to make his return to the octagon early next year.
After undergoing successful neck surgery in April, 'Funk Master' was set to defend his belt against Petr Yan at UFC 267. However, he had to make peace with the fact that he needed more time to recover. Sterling eventually pulled out of the fight, only to be replaced by Cory Sandhagen.
Now that his recovery process is going smoothly, Sterling believes he can regain full fitness by February or March next year.
The New York native currently boasts a six-fight win streak in the UFC. Since making his promotional debut in 2014, he has won 11 fights and lost just three.
