"Congratulations champion, you did it!" - Jon Jones reacts to Aljamain Sterling winning the title at UFC 259

Former Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones has complimented Aljamain Sterling on winning the UFC bantamweight strap tonight.

Jon Jones took to Twitter to appreciate Aljamain Sterling for the his efforts in tonight's bantamweight title clash. 'Aljo' fought Petr Yan at UFC 259 and was awarded the victory due to Yan's disqualification, courtesy of an illegal knee on a downed Sterling.

Jon Jones believes that the illegal strike was not Aljamain Sterling's fault and the New York native rightfully deserves to be the champion.

It appeared that Petr Yan threw an intentional devastating knee strike when Aljamain Sterling's knee was still touching the UFC canvas. Referee Mark Smith consulted the doctor on duty and assessed Sterling's well-being, before calling off the fight.

Petr Yan was eventually disqualified in his first title defense and Sterling is now the new Bantamweight champion of the UFC. However, 'Funkmaster' seemed dejected with the outcome. The champion wants to get back to the drawing board and run it back with the Russian MMA athlete.

Petr Yan apologises for the disastrous screw-up tonight

Immediately following his DQ loss tonight, Petr Yan apologized to his opponent Aljamain Sterling for the illegal strike. The Russian bantamweight wished a speedy recovery to Aljo and expressed regret for the unintentional knee.

Aljamain Sterling has also commented on the upsetting end to his fight tonight. The 135 lbs champ took to Twitter to express remorse over the outcome in tonight's clash.

According to UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, Petr Yan's cornermen dictated the fighter to throw a knee on Aljamain Sterling. In haste, Yan did not notice that Sterling was still a grounded opponent and acted on his coaches' commands.

"To be honest I didn't really understand what they were telling me. I was just focussed on him and focussed on throwing the knee... for a while I thought I did everything right and that he was not downed. I think everyone thought that I was winning this fight", said Petr Yan on his defeat tonight.