5 of the most questionable interim title fights in UFC history
As the world’s biggest MMA promotion, the UFC’s titles have always been seen as the pinnacle of a fighter’s career. Few fighters can become UFC champions and plenty of great ones miss out on gold.
Over the years, though, the UFC has sometimes devalued their championships by creating interim titles, often putting them on the line in questionable fights.
With the UFC recently booking yet another interim title fight for next month, it’s worth looking back at their history with these kind of clashes and asking why they’ve been put together.
UFC is moving forward with an interim bantamweight title fight between Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267 on Oct. 30, Dana White told @bokamotoESPN.
Reigning champion Aljamain Sterling was scheduled to defend his title against Yan, but failed to receive medical clearance. https://t.co/MDxVv2hN9p
So here are five of the most questionable interim title fights in UFC history.
#5. Petr Yan vs. Cory Sandhagen – UFC 267
The UFC’s latest questionably booked interim title fight is set to involve Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen.
The two 135lbers will battle for the interim UFC bantamweight title at UFC 267 this October. The bout was made after reigning champion Aljamain Sterling was forced out of his rematch with Yan due to an ongoing spinal problem. However, there are a number of issues with the booking of this fight that make it a genuine head-scratcher.
Firstly, did the UFC really need to book an interim title fight at this stage? Sure, Sterling was unable to make the October booking, but according to a recent Instagram post by ‘Funk Master’, he initially wanted the fight pushed back to December anyway.
So given UFC 267 already has a main event, Jan Blachowicz vs. Glover Teixeira, surely the UFC could simply have waited for Sterling to return.
More to the point, while it’s understandable that Yan would be involved in any UFC bantamweight title bout due to the controversial way he lost his title, the same can’t be said for Sandhagen. ‘The Sandman’ actually lost his last fight to T.J. Dillashaw, making it extremely difficult to justify his position in any kind of title fight. In fact, this fight is the first instance in UFC history to see two fighters coming off losses fighting for a title.
Yan vs. Sandhagen will undoubtedly be a thriller of a fight, but that doesn’t make it any less questionable.