Aljamain Sterling: “Petr Yan’s a tough dude. He’s good but I’m not sold on him yet”
Aljamain Sterling might have delivered a career-best performance at UFC 250 when he defeated Cory Sandhagen in the very first round of their fight by a rear-naked choke submission. It was an important fight for the bantamweight division not just because these were two important contenders who had entered the fight on considerable winning streaks, but also because the division will soon crown a new champion and it needs someone to fight for the belt.
Aljamain Sterling unimpressed with Petr Yan
Aljamain Sterling was always a fighter who had been in the title race. Since Cejudo vacated the title, he just became a more prominent player. Aljamain Sterling had even had a rough exchange with Petr Yan. Before the fight Dana White had said the winner will be the number 1 contender for the bantamweight title. When Aljamain Sterling was asked what were his thoughts on Yan as a fighter he said,
“Petr Yan’s a tough dude. He’s good but I’m not sold on him yet. I still think there are some question marks to be answered. Maybe this one’s going to answer those questions or if not, I’d love to be the guy to get put into that position to take out the boogeyman that everyone thinks. I’m like dude, he’s a f**king person. He bleeds just like everybody else. I don’t give a sh*t.”
Aljamain Sterling also used the opportunity to talk about the Black Lives Matter movement and said,
"If one house is burning, do all of the houses matter at the time? No, they don't. Just the one has that's on fire… The black community is that fire that needs to be taken care of."
Aljamain Sterling's comments were based on the backdrop of the fight that Yan will enter in July when he takes on Jose Aldo. Aljamain Sterling has been on an impressive win streak over the past 3 years. The streak includes wins over Cody Stamann and Pedro Munhoz.
The performance that Aljamain Sterling delivered even prompted Yan to tweet, "Congratulations to @funkmasterMMA on amazing performance #UFC250"
Aljamain Sterling will fight the winner of Jose Aldo and Petr Yan, and that fight will be amazing.