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In an interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, UFC bantamweight Aljamain Sterling revealed that he sees shades of Khabib-Ferguson in his UFC bantamweight title fight with Petr Yan.
Aljamain Sterling believes he’s the uncrowned UFC bantamweight king; compares his situation to Tony Ferguson
Aljamain Sterling claimed that his resume is more impressive than that of Petr Yan. Sterling believes that he has faced much tougher opponents when compared to the opposition Yan has faced. Furthermore, he believes that he’s the “uncrowned king” of the UFC bantamweight division.
Sterling indicated on Twitter that he isn’t comparing himself to Tony Ferguson per se, but is simply comparing the similarity in how both their respective title shots fell apart. Both Sterling and Ferguson have strung together impressive winning streaks in their respective careers.
One ought to note that Ferguson was on a 12-fight winning streak before his UFC 249 fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov was canceled. The latter couldn’t make it to the US from Russia due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Ferguson resultantly faced replacement fighter Justin Gaethje, losing via fifth-round TKO at UFC 249 in May of this year.
The Khabib-Ferguson fight never came to fruition, as Khabib beat Gaethje at UFC 254 in October and then retired from MMA. Over the past several years, Nurmagomedov and Ferguson were booked to face each other on five separate occasions, with the fight falling apart each time.
Sterling is presently on a five-fight winning streak and has compared his situation to that of Tony Ferguson. Sterling, who’s the number-one contender for the UFC bantamweight title, stated:
“I’m kinda starting to feel like Tony Ferguson a little bit. The Ferguson-Khabib fight not happening, it kinda feels like that. I just hope eventually it does come to fruition. We need this for the division and I think it will (happen).”
“I think (Petr Yan) had an easy path to the title…I think I fought stiffer competition.”
Aljamain Sterling addresses Petr Yan’s withdrawal from their UFC 256 fight
Petr Yan is coming off a huge fifth-round TKO victory over MMA legend Jose Also whom he beat in July of this year. Meanwhile, Aljamain Sterling’s most recent fight was an impressive first-round submission win against Cory Sandhagen in June.
Yan captured the vacant UFC bantamweight title with his victory over Aldo, and was all set to defend his title against Sterling at UFC 256 on December 12th, 2020. However, a few days back, it was revealed that the Yan vs. Sterling UFC bantamweight title matchup won’t take place at UFC 256.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Sterling explained that he was initially told that Yan withdrew from the fight due to injury issues. Regardless, the MMA world was subsequently set abuzz by the news that Yan withdrew from the fight due to personal reasons.
Sterling noted the same and added that he too was as befuddled as everyone else regarding the contrasting reasons for Yan’s withdrawal that were being circulated in MMA circles.
Additionally, Sterling pointed out that yet another reason given for Yan’s withdrawal was that the Russian fighter couldn’t make it to the US on time for UFC 256 owing to visa issues.
‘The Funk Master’ suggested that despite the confusion surrounding the actual reason behind Yan pulling out of their fight, he believes the fight will happen.
