Aljamain Sterling will be taking his time before running it back with former bantamweight champion Petr Yan.
From the moment the championship belt was wrapped around the waist of Aljamain Sterling as a result of a disqualification, the conclusion of UFC 259’s bantamweight title fight has been dissected from every angle by industry insiders, fans, and fighters. The one thing everybody seems to agree on is that there must be a rematch, and the sooner the better.
Sterling and Yan have already signed off on the idea of fighting one another again, so now the question becomes: when? Based on Sterling’s recent comments in an interview with The Schmo, it might not come as soon as the public or even Sterling himself originally anticipated.
“I’m just gonna give my brain the time it needs to heal,” Sterling said. “ I was very eager. I was kind of emotional. I was like, ‘I just wanna run this back right away.’ But then, when I came down from the high of the adrenaline dump, I really started to feel everything. And I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I should chill.’ I just did two training camps back to back for Yan. He pulled out of the first one. We had this one. He threw an illegal knee. The guy doesn’t know the rules. He’s a ‘champion’ but doesn’t know the rules. Crazy.
“And, yeah, just give my (brain) some time to heal so that I don’t go in still having residual side effects from this fight going into the next one, and then I get punched, and then I got my eyes rolling in the back of my head and not being able to endure the shots I was able to endure in that fourth round.”
Sterling Says Heart & Grit Was Proven At UFC 259
Despite accusations of being called an actor and a quitter, Aljamain Sterling feels that the evidence shows just the opposite: that he was not going to give up, even though things were not going his way late in the fight.
“I took some big shots in that fourth round. And people still saw me coming forward,” Sterling said. “If anything, I think I showed my heart. I showed my grit and what I’m made of. And I’m a true fighter, man. Sorry that I got blasted with a knee that I didn’t see that was illegal.”
Be sure to keep it locked on MMANews.com for further updates on this story, including when and where the rematch between Petr Yan & Aljamain Sterling will be taking place!
