The first meeting between Yan and Sterling took place on March 6. In the fourth round of the bout, the Russian inflicted an illegal knee, as a result of which he lost by disqualification and lost his belt.
"It is not very pleasant for Petr. You see he's got the whole camp under his belt, he's got trainers and guys who are as much like his opponents as possible. A lot of money and energy is spent on preparations. And it`s all going to happen in such a way. To put it mildly, it is not pleasant. To put it this way, Sterling is an underachiever. There's no understanding or forgiveness for this man. Acted like a coward. Petr also went out fighting with terrible injuries that no one ever found out about. Always something crunchy, but talking about relapse is creepy.
We know full well that the words "morality" and "manhood" are not about Sterling. He wears the belt, gets dividends from it, gets his picture taken with it, presents himself to everyone as the UFC champion. But that's not a champion," Shtyrkov said.
Recall, instead of Sterling fight with Yan on October 30 at UFC 267 will be held by Corey Sandhagen. An interim title will be at stake in the meeting.