Watch: Aljamain Sterling looks absolutely ripped ahead of rematch against Petr Yan at UFC 273
Aljamain Sterling seems to be in great shape ahead of his title unification bout against Petr Yan at UFC 273. Sterling recently posted a video on Instagram where he can be seen flexing his ripped physique.
Sterling wrote in the caption of his latest post:
"It feels good to finally feel GREAT! Let’s see who gets the last laugh. Maroon warrior ting ah gwan!"
Aljamain Sterling challenged Petr Yan for the bantanweight title at UFC 259 in March last year. Yan was leading on two of the judges' scorecards when the fight was met with an anticlimactic finish in the fourth round.
'No Mercy' landed an illegal knee on his downed opponent despite the referee's warnings, leading to a disqualification loss. Sterling became the first fighter in UFC history to be crowned champion via DQ.
The illegal knee from Yan on Sterling #UFC259 https://t.co/UnzqTTafSl
Aljamain Sterling accepted that Petr Yan was winning the first fight until the illegal strike
Aljamain Sterling gave due credit to Petr Yan for his performance in their first outing. 'Funk Master' even accepted that Yan was on his way to a dominant victory before he landed the illegal knee.
However, he also blamed Yan for being "stupid" enough to break the rules. Sterling told Ariel Helwani on an episode of The MMA Hour:
"He’s a tough dude, I always give the fighters and my opponents respect. He could have won the fight, he was on his way of dominating. He started to pull away, he was beating my a*s all of the fourth round. I still landed two head kicks right before I shot in and then he knee me in the head. He was beating my a*s, that’s a fact. But this is all his fault because he’s that stupid. Do you want a champ that doesn’t know the rules and tries to get away with sly dirty sh*t?"
Watch Aljamain Sterling discuss his DQ win below (Sterling interview starts at 36:30):
However, Sterling changed his tone while trading barbs with Yan ahead of their UFC 273 rematch. The American recently claimed that he won every exchange during their first encounter.
I won every exchange. You clearly didn’t watch the fight. twitter.com/Yellowman617/s…