MOSCOW, April 10, Oleg Bogatov. The decision of the judges to award the victory to the American mixed fighter martial arts (MMA) Aljamain Sterling in a fight with Russian Peter Yan at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) tournament is political in nature, said Russian MMA fighter Denis Goltsov. The fight took place at the 273rd number promotion tournament in Jacksonville (Florida, USA) on the night of Sunday and ended with the victory of Sterling, who defended his bantamweight title, by a split decision. After the fight, Yang said that the judges «stole» the victory from him and demanded a rematch. «I think that the result of the fight is pure politics. Of course, Yang was robbed. After all, how could Sterling win the first round, moving» in reverse «, and very actively. And never inflicting a blow or any damage to the opponent. He (Sterling) kicked with his feet and ran backwards, and they (the judges) considered that in this way he won the round. This is complete nonsense. Therefore, Peter took the first, fourth and fifth rounds, and the victory is his,” said Goltsov. “Apparently, Peter did not expect that he could get into such an (alarming) situation in which he found himself in the second and third rounds,” added Goltsov , speaking about the segments of the battle lost by the Russian. — But he did not lose heart, did not give up the position, he delivered (hit) and held on normally. Will they give Peter revenge? Definitely. I think that in any case he will have some kind of intermediate battle and then a rematch with Sterling. Unless the belt goes anywhere else. «Ian and Sterling met for the second time, in the first meeting in 2021, the Russian lost the champion title after being disqualified for an illegal knee to the head of an American. Yang suffered his third defeat in his professional mixed martial arts career, with 16 victories to his credit.
