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Petr Yan lost the UFC bantamweight title to Aljamain Sterling at UFC 259 after being disqualified due to an illegal knee. For the first time in the promotion's history, a new UFC champion was crowned due to disqualification by an illegal strike.
In a recent interview with The Bash MMA, Petr Yan's coach John Hutchinson revealed the exact nature of the conversation the Russian had with his corner before ending the fight with an illegal knee. Speculating that Petr Yan made an error in the heat of the moment, Hutchinson said:
"It was just like the heat of the moment caught him. I think it was a bit of a mix up too because the referee was explaining to him, 'the fingers are off the ground or something’. So I’m not sure but it was just the heat of the moment that caught him by surprise. It (chances) was one a one hundred to one, you know."
Did his corner direct Petr Yan towards the illegal knee?
Following the devastating end to the fight, there was commotion in the UFC commentary booth as Khabib Nurmagomedov apparently revealed that he heard Petr Yan's corner asking him to knee a downed opponent. Yan's corner earned a lot of flak after the incident. ESPN shared footage of Yan's corner during the sequence.
While nothing specific can be heard about a knee, at the 19-second mark of the video, one of the cornermen said, “Hit him, hit him”, as confirmed by MMA Fighting with a Russian native. Explaining the atmosphere in Petr Yan's corner, John Hutchinson told The Bash MMA:
"Yeah, so four of us like listened back to it and you can hear me at the front, I’m shouting, ‘Keep the pressure, keep the pressure’. And then Parrumpinha (Marcos da matta) shouts ‘Just punch, just punch.’ But there was something in the back in Russian, I don’t know whether it is in Russian but maybe it’s caught across that way. But Petr (Yan) didn’t even hear that, there was four guys screaming at him. That’s what it is. So I don’t think that will play a part. Maybe they did say a ‘knee’ but I don’t know if he played it. As I said, it was quick reaction and he just let go, you know."
