Petr
Yan claims a
UFC staff member tried to take his original championship belt
and replace it with a replica.
Yan defeated Merab
Dvalishvili in a rematch at
UFC 323 this past December to win the bantamweight title for
the second time. “No Mercy” claims a UFC employee approached him
after the post-fight press conference and asked him to hand over
his belt. The staff member allegedly handed Yan a replica instead,
saying he already had an original belt from his first title reign.
However, Yan refused to hand over the fruits of his hard earned
victory. The Russian was disappointed with the whole affair,
regardless of whoever was responsible for it.
A New History
“I got the real, original championship belt, I had it over my
shoulder,” Yan said on „The Ariel Helwani Show.” “We went and did the
press conference and as soon as I was coming off the press
conference stage, one of the UFC employees says, ‘I gotta get that
belt and I’m gonna give you this one.’ And I said, ‘Wait, what do
you mean you gotta get this? This is the belt, I want this belt.
Why do you need this?’ And he said, ‘Well, you already have this
belt. I need to give you this version.’ And he showed be basically
a replica of a belt.
“And I said, ‘No. How would I get home with a replica? It doesn’t
matter where my other belt is, it doesn’t matter when I won it, how
I won it.’ This is a new history, this is a new chapter, this is a
new belt, and I wasn’t gonna be leaving without it. I feel like it
wasn’t really nice or correct from the standpoint of the company or
the standpoint of the employee of the company, to try and take my
original belt.”