Cory Sandhagen, like his next opponent TJ Dillashaw, doesn’t see Aljamain Sterling beating Petr Yan in the rematch.
At UFC 259, Yan and Sterling had their anticipated bantamweight title fight. In the scrap, Yan dropped Sterling in the first and was starting to dominate the scrap. He was stuffing the American’s takedowns and even taking him down. Yet, in the fourth round, the Russian landed an illegal knee and the fight was over and Sterling became the new champ.
Now, when they run it back, Sandhagen believes Yan will beat Sterling in the rematch. He also believes if he won the belt like that, he would be acting way different than Sterling is, but he does think Yan deserved to be DQ’d.
“Yeah, I think Yan will definitely beat him in the next one,” Sandhagen said to MMAJunkie. “The way that the fight was going, Aljamain was coming at him with his heaviest artillery, and he couldn’t really get anything going, and Yan took it like a champ until he made a really terrible decision. Definitely Aljamain was losing in my opinion, and if I win the belt like that, I would likely be acting in a very different way. I think that I would be pretty upset because I was losing, not because I got DQ’d, but easier said than done I guess.”
Cory Sandhagen is not alone in thinking Sterling doesn’t get the job done in the rematch. Sandhagen’s next opponent in TJ Dillashaw, has also made it clear he expects to face Petr Yan next time out for the belt after he beats the rising contender. Regardless, although Sandhagen and Dillashaw believe Sterling won’t win, the fight still needs to happen, and perhaps the bantamweight champ can pull off the upset.
Do you agree with Cory Sandhagen that Aljamain Sterling will lose to Petr Yan?
