The reigning bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling recently responded to Dana White’s comments regarding his bout at UFC 273.
White firmly believes the judges scored it wrong – and that Petr Yan should’ve come out victorious.
UFC 273 co-main event featured a bantamweight title fight between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan. The result of this rematch surprised many MMA fans as the underdog champion came out as the victor. Many believe Petr Yan won majority of the rounds, including the UFC president Dana White himself.
During UFC 273 press conference, White suggested that the judges made a mistake. He also compared it to his own scorecard which had Yan in the lead.
“I thought the judges blew that one. I had it 3-2 [for Yan]. I don’t know how you guys scored it. It’s all in however you score that first round. That fight will be there, Petr Yan is one of the baddest dudes in that division, [but] you probably do the T.J. fight.” White said.
Many UFC fans agreed with Dana White’s statement. But even hard core fans of Yan could see that he had gone into this bout with a hot head, and had gotten himself in too deep allowing for Sterling to get and maintain back control for the majority of rounds 2 and 3.
Aljamain Sterling hit back at Dana White on his youtube channel.
“Dana’s not a judge. And again, I think everyone was so high on Yan: ‘Yan by anything he wants!’ ‘Yan by murder!’ ‘Oh, I can’t believe Aljo’s training is so hard. Yo, you look so good. You’re shredded. And by the way, Yan by murder.’ And it’s like, oh, wow. The first time I read it, it was good, and then everyone kinda started recycling the same joke.” Sterling said during a talk with The MMA Hour.
“But I think everyone had Yan so highly here and had me so far down here because of that first performance that what they were watching in the first round, ‘Oh, he does this to everybody. He does this to everybody. He’s just downloading data.’ I’m like, I don’t give a s–t what you’re downloading. I don’t give a s–t what you’re uploading. Bro, you lost the freakin’ round. You. Lost. Damage is what we score.”
The 32-year-old even dared the UFC head honcho to elaborate further on his scorecard. He demanded an explanation in details about White’s scorecard.
“And if Dana wants to say it comes down to the first round, ‘The judges definitely got it wrong, they blew that one…’ how’d they blow that one, Dana? Please, let me know based on the scoring criteria, Dana, how the hell did Petr Yan win that first round? Just make it make sense. “ Sterling added.
Even though Dana White’s statement seems to be inappropriate for UFC president, he also secured a third match for Sterling and Yan ho are now 1-1. But, their third fight has to wait as TJ Dillashaw is next in line to get his title shot against Sterling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYJVnkTluhw