BEVERLY HILLS, March 07, (THEWILL) – At the Apex facility in Las Vegas on Saturday, the curse of the Bantamweight division struck again when American Aljamain “Funk Master” Sterling became the new Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight champion via a disqualification win over Russian Petr Yan in the fourth round of their main card fight on UFC 259.
The Russian was set to win the fight and defend his belt, having outfought the American challenger when he kneed Sterling, who was clearly on the ground, in the head, a violation of the rules.
The fight which initially began in Sterling’s favour, when the 31-year-old came out early as the aggressor, progressed well for him, putting Yan on the defensive. He landed a flying knee against Yan’s head to set up his first takedown of the evening to Yan’s obvious disadvantage.
However, the Russian got back on his feet and knocked his opponent down with a well-placed right hand. The Funk Master stuck to his straightforward and predictable game plan of hunting a takedown in Round 2. He was mostly unsuccessful but it forced Yan to spend the bulk of the five-minute frame keeping the American from taking him down rather than executing how own plan.
The reward for Yan’s patient approach to the match started reaping dividends in the third round. The 28-year-old opened up his attack more and earned his own takedowns along with clean punches and clearly took any momentum Sterling may have previously earned. Yan was on the ascendancy and set to cruise through the championship rounds when he earned his disqualification.
With Sterling still down, Yan unleashed a knee to his head that effectively ended the fight and resulted in the penalty against the Russian, giving his title to Sterling.
However, the circumstances surrounding the end of their fight are simply the latest in a turbulent time for the bantamweight division of UFC. In recent years, holding on to the belt has proved to be slippery as no fighter has ever been able to defend it more than twice. In fact, since 2015, it has never been defended twice.
When 32-year-old American, Henry Cejudo, abandoned the title in 2019 by retiring from the sport, the UFC had to set up a title fight between Yan and former featherweight champion Jose Aldo to fill the vacancy. Surprisingly, Sterling was passed over for the opportunity despite a four-fight winning streak he boasted at the time.
But he staked his claim to challenge for the title by registering a surprise submission over fellow top contender Cory Sandhagen. Now, he is the champion but only because of Yan’s disqualification. Therein lies the possibility for these two to have to run it back again, as Yan was in a great position to win the fight before making that terrible decision.
Although the Russian owned his mistake and took the call of his disqualification strongly, he apologised for his error in judgement and accepted the disqualification. But, Sterling has come out to say this was not how he wanted to be champ.
“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!”
A rematch appears to be on the cards. It is as yet uncertain when that will happen but it seems to be what everyone involved expects at the barest minimum for this division to exorcise the curse of the Bantamweight.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
