He told me Sterling was acting like a b**** - Petr Yan talks about his developing friendship with Nate Diaz
Nate Diaz assessed the UFC 259 bantamweight title fight for Petr Yan and personally told the former champion that Aljamain Sterling wronged him by taking the disqualification route to win the title.
Petr Yan spoke to Ariel Helwani of ESPN about his unfortunate title loss in a recent interview. Upon being asked about his encounter with Nate Diaz, "No Mercy" told Helwani that he ran into the Stockton native by sheer coincidence. However, the two had a courteous meeting, Diaz telling Yan that he was winning the fight against Aljamain Sterling, who acted like a b***h by not continuing the fight after taking time to recover from Yan's illegal knee strike.
"I met Nate Diaz by chance. Just by chance, we were eating at one spot and talking at the parking lot and Nate with his friends was passing by and they saw us and stopped there and came to us, shook our hands, took some pictures and talked to us a little bit. Nate Diaz told me that I beat Sterling and Sterling acted like a b***h," Petr Yan's translator said.
What is Nate Diaz's issue with Petr Yan's loss?
Petr Yan returned to competition for the first time at UFC 259 against Aljamain Sterling since winning the vacant bantamweight title in July 2020. Yan's first title defense turned out to be unsuccessful after an Illegal knee strike by Yan rendered Aljamain Sterling unable to compete. The referee declared Sterling the winner by disqualification to become the first champion in the UFC history to win the title by disqualification.
Aljamain Sterling's decision not to continue the fight has become one of the biggest talking points of UFC 259 and many experts in the MMA community have questioned the viability of the rules that allowed him to walk away with the title.
Nate Diaz's reaction to the outcome of Petr Yan's fight is natural considering his history with officials. The Stockton native has been a vocal critic of the rules of the sport as he has been on the wrong side of the scorecards and the calls made by officials on multiple occasions in his career.