Petr Yan is not fond of the idea of calling nemesis Aljamain Sterling by his government name, but he has some handpicked alternatives at the ready.
The bad blood between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling has steadily increased week by week ever since the controversial conclusion of their UFC 259 title fight in March, which saw Yan disqualified for an illegal knee to a downed Sterling. Yan and many fans have accused Sterling of turning in a Hollywood performance worthy of an A-lister to prompt the disqualification ruling.
Furthermore, Sterling’s detractors say that the “Funk Master” only added to his alleged cowardice by “ducking” Yan after the fact. It is for these reasons that Yan refused to acknowledge Sterling by name and instead offered to christen the current bantamweight champion with some interim titles to go by.
“Brother, no ‘Aljamain.’ No ‘Aljamain.’ ‘Bitch,’’ lady,’ ‘chicken,’ no ‘Aljamain,” Yan said correcting the interviewer in an appearance on InsideFighting when Sterling’s name was mentioned.
If it weren’t already clear in his “name suggestions” for Sterling, the Russian would elaborate through an interpreter why he holds Sterling in such low regard.
“To be honest, I respect all of my opponents, except Aljamain. I have zero respect for that guy,” Yan said. “How can you respect this crybaby for crying out the belt for himself, you know? I just keep watching clips from the fight when the referee was saying he would disqualify me, and Aljo heard it and (started) rolling his eyes, rolling on the canvas. It was such a joke.”
Sadly, these two enemies will no longer have an opportunity to settle their feud anytime soon, with Sterling withdrawing from their UFC 267 bout due to lingering neck issues. Instead, Yan will be taking on Cory Sandhagen in the co-main event for the interim bantamweight title.
Do you share Petr Yan’s characterization for Aljamain Sterling?
