LAS VEGAS: Aljamain Sterling took off his UFC waist belt and dropped it on the Octagon rug with a punch. Then Sterling got on his knees and put his head on the fabric.
It wasn’t the behavior of someone who had just achieved a long-term dream of becoming a UFC champion. But those were the extremely bizarre circumstances of Saturday’s UFC bantamweight title fight at UFC 259.
Sterling won the title by disqualification in the 4th minute, 29 seconds of the fourth round after Yan landed an illegal knee to Sterling’s head. The ring doctor determined that Sterling, who was visibly shaking her knee, could not fight. Referee Mark Smith ruled the foul intentionally, turning the result into a disqualification.
Sterling then took to Twitter and expressed disappointment at how the fight ended.
“It’s not like you want to win a fight,” he wrote in his tweet. “He was close, competitive and full of action. I felt his knee was intentional, especially after the referee announced he was a defeated opponent, so I didn’t expect to be beaten. Yan is a bad guy! do “
Yan also tweeted later, apologizing and wishing Sterling a “quick recovery.”
“I didn’t want to launch an illegal strike,” Yan wrote. “I just made a big mistake and I paid for it.”
What made the ending even weirder is that Yan had total control of the fight. He was starting to pick Sterling in the third and fourth test with technical boxing. Sterling, who worked hard to boost the pace and bother Yan, looked like he was just smoking with Yan in the final rounds.
Sterling had a strong start to the fight. He landed two hard knees jumping on Yan’s head in the first round. Yan concentrated late on the first falling Sterling with his left hand.
The pound continued to press on the second, but most of Yan was not afraid. He filled almost every attempt at Sterling’s withdrawal and was competent in control.
Yan landed some strong hands on the left and right in the fourth round, getting a weird finish.
The judges had Yan ahead 29-28, 29-28, 28-29 until the fourth, a round that Yan won convincingly in the face of the illegal knee.
Yan and Sterling were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in ESPN’s MMA bantamweight ranking. UFC 259 took place with coronavirus protocols in place at UFC Apex, a facility located across from the UFC corporate campus.
Sterling (20-3) has won six in a row. The New Yorker, who did his training camp at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, came out of a win for the first time against Cory Sandhagen at the UFC 250 in June. Sterling, 31, holds a 12-3 UFC record.
Yan (15-2) won the vacant UFC bantamweight title by beating Jose Aldo in UFC 251 last July. The Russian native had won 10 in a row, including his first seven in the UFC. Yan, 28, usually trains outside of Tiger Muay Thai in Thailand, but moved his camp to American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, this time for COVID-19-related travel inconveniences.