It is my belief that the UFC's deepest and most exciting division is at 135 lbs. Bantamweight has a mix of aging legends, current stars, and rising contenders that results in fun matchups by pairing virtually any two fighters in the top 20, maybe even 25. However, over the last year or so, maybe even going as far back as the retirement of Henry Cejudo, the bantamweight division has seemingly never gotten out of a weird state of flux. After Cejudo walked away from the sport, vacating both of his titles in the process, the bantamweight division hasn't gotten back into a normal flow of title fights or title defenses, despite having more contenders and potential matchups than most, if not all, other weight classes. Petr Yan defeated former featherweight champion Jose Aldo for the vacated title at UFC 251 in July of 2020 on Fight Island. Yan's first defense was originally scheduled for that December against Aljamain Sterling, who was coming off a major submission victory over Corey Sandhagen. Even though Sterling's win came in June and Yan captured the title in July, their title fight wasn't scheduled until the final pay per view of the year in December. I don't know the reason for the long layoff, but it just seemed weird at the time considering Aljo took no damage at all and Yan mostly dominated Aldo. The December fight ended up never happening as Yan would pull out due to personal reasons, which, as far as I know, we have never gotten more information on. I don't think we are necessarily entitled to know details, but, knowing what we know now, it's just another weird turn this story as taken. Yan vs Sterling would eventually take place in March 2021 at UFC 259. As has been well documented by this time, what started as a somewhat even fight in the early going, was really trending towards Yan by the midpoint of the fight and I believe we would have seen Yan finish Sterling in the 5th round. However, as the 4th round was winding down, Yan lands the illegal knee strike to the head of the downed Sterling rendering him unable to continue. This would cause Aljo to win the fight via disqualification and capture UFC gold in an ending that felt very odd in the moment. I may cover the fall out between Yan and Sterling and their interactions in a separate post because so much has transpired just between them that this post would end up being 10,000 words.
Despite the controversy, Aljamain Sterling was the new UFC bantamweight champion and everyone already knew this fight would immediately be run back due to the nature of the finish. However, this is only the beginning of the chaos in the bantamweight division because following the illegal strike against Yan, Sterling would require significant neck surgery (not that there is really such a thing as insignificant neck surgery) and the lengthy recovery period that comes with it. Their rematch would eventually be booked for October 30th. As most people predicted, this wound up being way too quick of a turnaround. In fact, they booked Sterling's first title defense coming off of a neck surgery (March - October) for a faster turnaround than Yan's first defense ended up being after a dominant victory (July - March), but that's neither here nor there. Sterling was not cleared by the UFC's medical team as being able to compete, so the UFC began the process of trying to find a replacement to participate in an interim title fight on the same October 30th card. So what's the issue? We've had interim champions many times before for way less obvious reasons that the champion getting neck surgery (see Gane vs Lewis as the most recent example) after all? And I did just say there was no shortage of contenders in this weight class, so there should be no issue in putting together a compelling championship match up.
Well, due to the fact that Yan fought for the title, had 1 defense, and was set up for another fight all over the course of 16 months, a lot had transpired across the rest of the division. Former top ranked bantamweight Marlon Moraes has recently fallen on hard times having lost 3 in a row. Former Champion Cody Garbrandt has had similar issues and is now booked in a different weight class. New member of the top 5 Rob Font was reported by Ariel Helwani to be unavailable for this fight, but no reason was given. Jose Aldo has rebounded since his loss to Yan, but due to the way their first fight transpired, no one was really clamoring for that rematch. Former champion T.J. Dillashaw recently returned from a two year PED suspension and won his number one contender's fight against Corey Sandhagen, but he's unable to compete because of a knee injury he suffered in the Sandhagen fight that required surgery. Anyone else would probably be reaching too far down the rankings (which the UFC generally doesn't do) and even the next few guys such as Frankie Edgar and Pedro Munhoz are either booked, coming off a loss, or both (Munhoz not officially booked but the current rumor is he will be the next opponent for Dominick Cruz).
That really only leaves Corey Sandhagen, who has accepted the fight, and it has been made official. All of this translates to an odd situation because while it has happened in the past, the UFC generally doesn't give title fights to someone coming off of a loss, but here we are. Since losing the fight to Sterling that got Aljo that title shot in March, Sandhagen has seemingly been in a number one contender's fight like 3 times. However, the one that everyone truly recognized as that fight was the one against Dillashaw, which he lost by a split decision that was heavily debated in the media and by the public. I personally scored the fight 48-47 for Sandhagen, but it was so close, that I really can't even be upset over it. Should Sandhagen win later this month at UFC 267, there is no shortage of fun and intriguing options. Obviously, the unification bout with Sterling would come first as long as he continues to recover. He would also more than likely have to go through a rematch with Dillashaw since he lost to him a few months ago. This would be unfortunate for guys like Rob Font and Jose Aldo because if both of those contenders are lined up, they will have to either risk their spot several times or be forced to sit and wait for a title shot with an extended layoff. However, if Yan wins, then everything can kind of continue like the interim title never even happened. Yan and Sterling can have their rematch probably in the first quarter of 2022 and Dillashaw will either have the next title shot outright or will have to fight the winner of the Font vs Aldo fight scheduled for December 4th.
I think I'll leave it at that for this post. When talking about an entire division like this, it is easy to go on and discuss any number of possible scenarios, but this is already a long one and I don't want to start rambling. Comment what you guys thing of the whole situation. Do you think Sandhagen beats Yan? How long before Sterling gets stripped of the belt? Is there any part of this situation that I didn't comment on that you would like to hear about next? As always, thanks for reading.
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