"If he's forced to stand with him, he's going to get finished" - Michael Bisping predicts the winner of Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan at UFC 273
Former UFC fighter and analyst Michael Bisping has made his prediction for the winner of Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan on the main card of UFC 273.
Sterling and Yan have had plenty of bad blood between them since their first fight at UFC 259. 'Funk Master' won the title via disqualification when Yan delivered an illegal knee to a downed Sterling.
Over the past year, Sterling has received a tremendous amount of hate from fans for the manner in which he won the title and from Yan, who has repeatedly mocked him as a 'fake champion'. Meanwhile, 'No Mercy' earned the interim bantamweight title by defeating Cory Sandhagen.
In an interview with BT Sport on their UFC 273 preview show, Michael Bisping had the following to say about the fight:
"I think Petr Yan goes out there, dominates the fight and gets it done. I really do think [that]. Aljamain [Sterling] might have a little bit of success early, but when Petr Yan starts to land shots, I think it's going to have a mental effect on Aljamain. It's going to bring him back to the first fight, it's going to send some reminders that perhaps Petr Yan is better than him... for Aljamain it's trying to grapple him and take him down. If he can't do that he's forced to stand with him and if he's forced to stand with him, he's going to get finished."
Watch Michael Bisping's thoughts on Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan below:
Aljamain Sterling discusses what went wrong against Petr Yan in their first fight
Aljamain Sterling admitted that Petr Yan was winning before the Russian struck him with an illegal knee, but 'The Funk Master' says that’s because he made a critical error beforehand.
On his YouTube channel, Sterling said:
“I think I messed up the day of the fight. I had a beautiful morning shake up, 20 minutes strong, hard pace. I felt like my lungs would never get tired, my arms, my muscles, everything felt phenomenal. Then, just not eating the way I normally do right after, not putting the fuel back into my body to actually go a 25 minutes pace for what I put out. The expenditure of energy, it was just way too much for what I put back into my body after having my morning shake out. Anyone who was there that day, they saw, it looked like I was possessed by a demon that morning, so to go from that to what I did that night, was to me, disgraceful, in the sense of that’s not even a glimpse of what I’m capable of."
Check out Aljamain Sterling's interview below:
Furthermore, Sterling went on to say that the difference in preparation caused by COVID-19 and the UFC’s safety policies played a major role in why things went sideways as well. With UFC 273 now just a few days away, Sterling says that he has learned from his mistakes and is ready to finally settle his feud with Yan.
The fight will take place this Saturday at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.