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Aljamain Sterling seems to have dismissed the excuses Petr Yan gave him after the Russian kneed the 'Funk Master' to the face in their bantamweight title fight at UFC 259.
The two fighters produced the biggest pre-fight rivalry among the three championship bouts that UFC 259 presented this past weekend. And things were no different inside the octagon.
The bantamweight clash was extremely balanced up to the fourth round. This was when Yan, the reigning champion, intentionally kneed Aljamain Sterling in the head while the latter was on the ground - an illegal move.
Referee Mike Smith stopped the fight and eventually declared Aljamain Sterling as the new bantamweight champion, after a UFC doctor said Funk Master was unable to continue.
Following the incident, Yan took to his social media accounts to apologize to Aljamain Sterling for his misconduct and lack of sportsmanship.
"I apologize and wish a speedy recovery to Aljamain Sterling. I didn't mean to throw an illegal strike. I just made a big mistake and paid for it," Yan wrote.
However, according to Merab Dvalishvili, Aljamain Sterling's teammate who speaks Russian, Yan took a different approach to the case than what his message in English suggested.
"Petr Yan, you apologize on Twitter but show your true colors here. Stop having your manager tweet for you and learn the rules before the rematch..." Dvalishvili wrote.
It did not take long for Aljamain Sterling to pick up on Yan's supposedly fake apologies. Once he was notified of the Russian's messages, Funk Master gave new life to their feud.
"Petr Yan, please allow me to cleanly knee you in the temple, while you aren't looking! See how much of a "clown" I would be then. I can admit round four, you were starting to land more shots, but the fight was statistically close, despite me fatiguing early. The clown here is you," Aljamain Sterling wrote.
Is Aljamain Sterling rematching Petr Yan for the bantamweight belt?
It seems like the UFC will schedule another fight between the new bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan. Although the Russian lost the bout via disqualification, he was ahead on points.
UFC president Dana White suggested that a subsequent title fight will be scheduled as soon as Aljamain Sterling recovers from his injury.
"Yeah, it su**ed. It was a good fight. I mean that was a fight that everybody was excited about tonight, everybody knew it was gonna be good. Well, that's a bad one. Yeah, as soon as possible [In response to Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan running back the rematch]," White said.
