Aljamain Sterling recently questioned Petr Yan being hailed as the greatest bantamweight fighter in UFC history.
Yan went up against Merab Dvalishvili in a trilogy fight with the bantamweight title on the line at UFC 333 last weekend and pulled off an incredible unanimous decision victory after outpointing ‘The Machine’ over five rounds.
Given his record and resume, many began hailing ‘No Mercy’ as the bantamweight GOAT in the aftermath. However, Sterling finds it hard to agree. In an episode of his podcast, he questioned Yan being called the greatest 135-pound fighter and said:
“I would say from a technical standpoint, if you want to say his technique is really, really good, and he’s a dog when he’s in there, I 100 percent agree. I’m not going to dismiss that. I’m not going to deny that greatness. He’s a technical savage when he’s in there, but what do you consider GOAT? I don’t even know anymore because it seems like the lines are so blurred that I don’t even know what the conversation is really even about anymore.”
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He added:
“He’s definitely in the mix. He’s in the conversation with Dominick Cruz, Merab, T.J. Dillashaw, but to just go hands down he’s the GOAT with one title defense is kind of crazy to me. To become a two-time champ in itself, that alone is hard. But one title defense, I don’t know if that does it for me, but he’s definitely in the conversation.” [H/t: MMA Junkie]
When Petr Yan addressed a potential Sean O’Malley rematch before UFC 333
Before the UFC 333 event, Petr Yan opened up about potentially facing Sean O’Malley in a rematch next.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, Yan claimed that he was open to the idea of fighting O’Malley again given their “history” and said:
“Why not? For real, we have history, so why wouldn’t that be the fight? I don’t know about who’s deserving of the belt. There’s a lot of guys in the top five that I already fought anyways. Whoever the UFC puts in front of me, that is who I’m going to fight. Whoever they think is the next opponent, I don’t choose my opponent. I’ll fight whoever they put in front of me.”
Edited by Nishant Zende.
