I mentioned in my "The UFC's Bantamweight Division is Kind of a Mess" post earlier this week that I was considering doing this one. If you haven't read that post, I would recommend that you do, but it's not a prerequisite for understanding this post. I am going to attempt to outline the whole situation between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan that started when they were booked to fight for the bantamweight title in December of last year. I don't want this post to just be a timeline, so I will try to briefly outline what happened and then get into their exchanges after.
After Yan captured the vacated title on Fight Island against Jose Aldo, his first title defense was booked for December of 2020 against Aljamain Sterling, who was coming off of his own very impressive submission victory over Corey Sandhagen. The fight didn't happen as scheduled after Yan pulled out citing personal reasons and the fight was rescheduled for March of 2021. Once they were both actually in the octagon, the bout saw Sterling get off to a fast start, but seemed to tire as we approached the half way point of the fight. With Aljo fading, Yan started to really pour it on in the 3rd and 4th rounds. As time in the 4th round started to wind down, I thought Aljo would likely be finished by Yan in the 5th, if he made it. As you probably know if you clicked this, Yan would deliver an illegal knee strike to the head of a downed Sterling, severely damaging the already exhausted and beat up fighter. It was determined that he would be unable to continue and was awarded the win via disqualification, which resulted in him becoming UFC champion. With the fight ending in the controversial fashion that it did, the rematch was obviously made and scheduled to take place at UFC 267 on October 30th. However, due to the injuries suffered in that fight, Sterling would require surgery on his neck and face a rough recovery process. It wasn't that surprising when Sterling officially pulled out of the fight after he was not cleared by UFC physicians. He was subsequently replaced by Corey Sandhagen in what is now an interim title fight with Yan.
All of the basic information outlined above is pretty straight forward, right? fighter is hit illegally, he is injured and unable to continue, needs surgery, then has to pull out because recovery was slower than expected. However, what makes this situation so odd is the way the rivalry between the two has transpired on social media since. They both tweet about each other constantly. I would estimate multiple times a week for more than 6 months now. Neither of them are doing themselves any favors either. It is almost as if they are competing to see who can look worse and quite honestly, they're doing a pretty good job at it. I am personally of the opinion that Petr Yan looks way worse here than Sterling, but that's only my opinion. Aljo was the first person to ever be awarded a UFC title after a DQ win and while not his fault, was obviously going to have a lot of people calling him a paper champ. At least from my perspective and within my circle, Sterling always seemed like a fan favorite. While I'm sure he had his haters and doubters, he was always a fun-loving, easy going, just generally likable guy. Yan on the other hand was portrayed mostly as the stereotypical "emotionless Russian assassin" type of character, which I think mostly worked well for him. His lack of interviews and not being a native English speaker only fueled this, but I think it worked well for him. It got him to championship status so whether that was his own doing or just the UFC's marketing doing it for him, he benefited nonetheless. All of this to say, when Yan plays the bad guy role, it works a lot better and comes off as much more natural. However, when Sterling started to try and play this bad guy character and attempt to troll the people in his mentions, it just seemed too forced. Sterling had built his fan base off of being a fun guy who people would have liked to hang out with. I think his "Funkmaster" nickname was perfect for him. When he made the decision to attempt to be a troll (posing with the belt, snarky replies, etc) online, I think it was just a little off putting to so many who liked him because he wasn't being the guy they thought they knew. While I personally wouldn't have chosen to go that route if I were him, I don't think Aljo really even looks all that bad with his tweets. Yea, he leaned into the heel character a little too much and just doesn't quite seem like he's genuine when he does it, but at least for me, I don't really care. It's not the first time we've seen a fighter be a little disingenuous and most certainly won't be the last.
I think Yan looks way worse. While Aljo looks like the typical internet troll, which, again, isn't a great look, I think Yan is making himself look a little...stupid. I don't say that in an attempt to be disrespectful to Petr Yan, but I just don't see how even he could make sense of some of the comments he makes. At best, they come across as hypocritical and at worst, they're just really dumb and maybe even a little insensitive. While there are small details that can be pointed out, which I will to some degree, there is one overarching point that I just can't get over. I really do not understand why Yan began or continues to talk trash about this whole thing, when he is the one at fault. Had Yan followed The Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, we would not be here today. Petr Yan is the one who delivered the illegal strike that caused the DQ and subsequent injury and he has no one to blame for that but himself. He can say that he was just following his corner's instructions and even if he was, he still has to be in control of his attacks at all times. His only arguments are 1. He didn't know it was illegal or 2. He did know and just did it anyway. I'm not sure which one is worse if I am being honest. In the immediate aftermath, there was a lot of talk that Aljo was milking the injury because he knew he was losing. I have never been kneed in the head, so I can't comment as to how that would effect someone, but just for the sake of argument let's just say he was milking it and acting. Sterling was still only put in a position to be able to do so due to Yan's infraction, so the fault is still squarely on Petr Yan's shoulders. However, I think the acting comments, while childish, aren't really too egregious. Up until that point, I was pretty much in the middle and was just accepting it as trash talk between the two and building up the rematch. What really turned me off from Yan in this situation is when he insisted that Aljo was faking, acting, and ducking him after his neck surgery. The whole thing just came off as extremely disrespectful and showing zero remorse for causing serious and potentially life altering injuries to someone. I feel like I don't really need to explain how serious a neck injury can be. It was all sort of fun and games even though there was some real emotions behind the words before then. I just think when someone's well being as a human, not just as an athlete, comes into question, there needs to be more respect. We aren't talking about a shoulder or a knee injury that while maybe someone never competes again, they're still a functional person and can live their life. Seriously injuring someone's neck could potentially leave them in a wheelchair or worse. At it's simplest level, Aljamain Sterling's long term health was put into question because of an illegal move performed by Yan and all he had to say about it was that Sterling is faking, even though licensed physicians had to perform surgery to correct the issues caused by it. That just doesn't sit right with me.
Finally, after it was announced that Sterling was not cleared by the UFC's doctors (not even his own doctors) and would be forced to pull out, Yan continued his quest to look bad in public. He continues to say what he's been saying, that Sterling is afraid and ducking him and he's pulling out because he's afraid. This just make's Yan look like a hypocrite because he's condemning Sterling for pulling out due to a neck surgery that he caused, but he pulled out of the December fight for reasons that are unknown to the public. I don't know, maybe I'm seeing it all wrong here. I've definitely been wrong in the past, and maybe this is just one of those times. Does anyone see Yan in the right here? Please leave your comments below because I would really like to see this side. I am open to doing a part 2 to this if someone can bring legitimate arguments to the table and at least make me reconsider my current stance. As always, thanks for reading.
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