While Petr Yan is not having a second fight with Aljamain Sterling this weekend, he is still fighting for UFC gold on some level. Ahead of the fight, he made it clear that he does not plan on making the same mistake twice, by throwing an illegal knee during the open workouts.
Yan lost his bantamweight title to Sterling earlier this year, after he threw an illegal knee to the face of Aljo, leading to a DQ loss. The two were expected to run it back at UFC 267 this weekend, but when Aljamain had lingering issues from neck surgery, Petr agreed to face Cory Sandhagen for an interim belt instead.
Ahead of the fight, Petr decided to do a bit of trolling during the open workout. As he showed with a video he posted to Twitter, he was hitting pads with his coach, before his coach took a knee, leading to Petr throwing a massive flying knee into his coach’s pads, who then fell over like he was knocked out.
Open workout 😉 #UFC267 pic.twitter.com/U5zPtVD8tm
— Petr “No Mercy” Yan (@PetrYanUFC) October 27, 2021
Aljamain Sterling Responds To Petr Yan
Obviously it did not take long for fans to recognize what was happening here, and that Petr Yan was trolling Aljamain Sterling. It was shortly after this, that the champ decided to respond to this troll attempt.
Quote tweeting the video, Sterling seemed to be taking it well, getting a good laugh out of the clip. However he then reminded Petr that there is a belt on the line again, and that he should be careful not to lose another title over an illegal shot.
“Hilarious! Don’t lose another belt!” Sterling wrote to Yan.
Hilarious! Don’t lose another belt! https://t.co/L58mlEIV8G
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) October 27, 2021
It is good to see that both Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling are taking the whole situation in stride, knowing that neither can change what is happening. It seems likely that regardless of the outcome this weekend, these two will certainly be having a rematch at some point down the line.
