Alexander BokulevDeputy Head of Editorial Board SportAll materialsFor more than a year, fans of mixed martial arts had to wait for a rematch between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling. When it finally took place, a new scandal could not be avoided. Let's figure out what happened and how it will affect the Siberian's future career. In March 2021, the Russian suffered his first defeat in the UFC and lost his bantamweight championship belt. This is due to a stupid resonant disqualification for a forbidden knee to Sterling's head, after which an unpleasant train of a «clown», an «actor without an Oscar» and other barbs of the era of daredevils from social networks reached out for the American. The UFC introduced an interim title in the division, which Ian won in an epic battle with Corey Sandhagen. It seemed that the Russian in this form literally declassed Sterling. Ian didn't have an easy walk, and the bookmakers, who offered surprisingly high odds for Sterling's victory, must have quickly become nervous.
Peter Yan and Aljamain Sterling at UFC 273 The American managed to use his strong wrestling skills much more convincingly than last year. They successfully overlapped with Jan's stylistic feature — a long set of maximum turns during the fight. As a result, after a dull first five-minute period, Sterling took the second and third with a very boring and passive control in the ground. Alas, not this time, because the decisive segment, contrary to the feelings of the cornermen Jan, was not the final, but the starting one. The one in which the visual and statistical components merged into an ambiguous compote. Formally, the first round could be left to each athlete, although not in the proportion of «50 to 50», but with a bias towards the Russian. But not so strong that, in the event of the opposite result, stubbornly talk about deliberate judicial sabotage of a political persuasion. Especially with the current referee card system in the UFC.
