Video of Petr Yan’s corner during the
sequence that resulted in his disqualification at
#UFC259 pic.twitter.com/2BtRqtGmBP— ESPN MMA (@espnmma)
March 7, 2021
Petr
Yan might have received some mixed messages from his corner
before landing the illegal knee that cost him his bantamweight belt
at
UFC 259.
According to a video shared by ESPN, one member of Yan’s team can
be overheard yelling, “Just punch” while Sterling is in a grounded
position. However, UFC commentator Daniel
Cormier claims that someone else in the corner gave the
go-ahead when asked if Yan could throw a kick.
“You can hear, one guy is saying ‘Just punch,’ but then somebody
goes ‘Yes’ when he says kick,” Cormier said during the UFC 259
broadcast. “It’s in Russian. Khabib [Nurmagomedov] heard it sitting
over here because we couldn’t understand the language. But someone
in that corner yelled, ‘Yes, kick’ and Petr Yan lands
an illegal knee that ultimately cost him the UFC championship.”
It’s unclear which cornerman Cormier is referencing regarding the
instructions to throw a kick, but moments later, Yan landed the
knee to Sterling’s head that rendered “The Funk Master” unable to
continue in the fourth round. Nurmagomedov was in attendance at the
event to corner teammate Islam
Makhachev, who fought earlier on the card.
Yan attempted to explain his thinking in a post-fight interview
with ESPN.
“So before the fight the referee was putting a lot of attention on
when the fighter is grounded on the hands. He put a lot of
attention on the hands. So he was showing [when] all the weight is
on his hands, he’s grounded. When his fingers are up or the hands
are up, he’s not grounded,” Yan said. “In this position, I was just
thinking about his hands, and I didn’t pay attention to his legs
and arms, so I didn’t mean to hit him illegally.”
Fortunately for Yan, a rematch with Sterling will likely be booked
in the coming months. Prior to the disqualification, two of the
three cageside judges had Yan ahead after three rounds. In victory,
Sterling became the first UFC champion to be crowned via
disqualification.
“Do I think the knee was intentional? He threw the knee. He didn’t
slip and accidentally land the knee,” UFC president Dana White said
at the post-fight press conference. “It sucked. It was a good
fight. That was a fight that everybody was excited about. Everybody
knew it was gonna be good. That’s a bad one.
“[We’ll schedule the rematch] as soon as possible.”