[autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag] praised [autotag]Petr Yan[/autotag]’s title-winning performance against [autotag]Cory Sandhagen[/autotag] at UFC 267.
Yan (16-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) defeated Sandhagen (14-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) in an entertaining “Fight of the Night” battle to capture the interim bantamweight title this past Saturday in the co-main event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Sandhagen got off to a good start, but the always composed Yan was able to make reads and take over the fight. He even dropped Sandhagen with a spinning back fist-to-left hand combination en route to a unanimous decision win.
Sterling (20-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) may not like Yan, but he lauded him for his tactical approach against Sandhagen.
“He did a great job of walking him down,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “That defense is very, very tight, very technical. He does a good job of looking through the eyebrows – just touching, slight parries, so every time you throw a jab, he just catches it, catches it nice and clean where almost nothing gets by. When Cory started to do a good job of trying to step in with the elbows, I was like, ‘This is a little bit too late, but it’s a good idea.’ It’s a good thing for other people to see. Even myself.
“I was like, ‘Oh, that was pretty crafty of a switch-up,’ but it’s kind of late in the fight to try and go that route at this point where you don’t have much pop in your punches or much juice left in the gas tank after a hard, 20-minute fight and you still have the last five minutes to go. Sandhagen cuts him off, he attacks the body with clean body kicks. Cory trying to poker face it, played a little game of, ‘Oh that was nothing,’ showing the abs like, ‘Ah, I can eat that.’ But eventually, those wear you down.”
Yan’s win set him up for the highly anticipated rematch against UFC bantamweight champion Sterling – the original matchup booked before Sterling was not medically cleared to compete after neck surgery.
Immediately after the fight, Sterling texted matchmaker Sean Shelby suggesting the first quarter of 2022 for his rematch with Yan, and he’ll aim to leave no doubt after capturing the title by disqualification in their first meeting at UFC 259.
“Yan fought a beautiful fight,” Sterling said. “I got the surgery. I still need a little bit more time. I’m aiming for January, February. … I’ll be at MSG – obviously UFC 268 is this weekend. I’m going to be there. Hopefully we get to talk it out and put something solid together and really get on the same page so we can all get ready to unify this belt and give the fans the fight that they deserve – the two best guys in the weight class really going at it, at their best, not one guy coming in a shell of himself at like 50, 60 percent, gassing out after five minutes of combat. That’s not good. I want to give you guys the show that you deserve. Yan and Sandhagen delivered. That’s what I want do for you guys.”
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