Breaking: Four champions now compete at
#UFC259 on March 6 as Petr Yan vs. Aljamain Sterling joins
Blachowicz vs. Adesanya and Nunes vs. Anderson.Myself and @mma_kings
have the news. https://t.co/qdNScXHYXM— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohnMMA)
January 7, 2021
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. The
Ultimate Fighting Championship is stacking its March
pay-per-view card about as much as it possibly can.
MMA Junkie first reported the news of this booking on Thursday,
as Petr
Yan (15-1) will look to defend his bantamweight strap for the
first time against Aljamain
Sterling (19-3). The two will compete at
UFC 259, which takes place on March 6 at an undetermined venue.
The matchup, which was once booked for UFC 256 only to get scuttled
when Yan withdrew, has since been confirmed by ESPN.
Should all three championship affairs stay intact, this event will
be the seventh in company history to put three titles on the line
in one night.
Yan captured the vacant throne at UFC 251, when he squared off
against ex-featherweight king Jose Aldo. Yan
battered Aldo to pick up a late fifth-round stoppage, thereby
extending his win streak to 10 including seven inside the Octagon.
“No Mercy” is just the second Russian champ to ever hold UFC gold,
with the first Khabib
Nurmagomedov. Yan’s sole career loss came to Magomed
Magomedov in 2016, and Yan avenged it a year later.
Sterling has rattled off five consecutive wins following a 2017
knockout defeat to Marlon
Moraes. Along the way, Sterling hit an ultra-rare “Suloev
stretch” kneebar on Cody
Stamann at UFC 228 in 2018. His most recent performance in a
title eliminator to Cory
Sandhagen came in dramatic fashion, as he pulled off a
rear-naked choke in just 88 seconds to secure the victory. Since
that win in June 2020, Sterling has been campaigning hard for his
title shot.
UFC 259 will take place on March 6 at a currently undisclosed
location, likely either at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas or in Abu
Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This embarrassment of riches card is
capped off with a light heavyweight championship affair pitting
Jan
Blachowicz against middleweight kingpin Israel
Adesanya. The co-headliner sees Amanda
Nunes put her featherweight title on the line against Megan
Anderson, while Yan-Sterling falls below this match. Other
major fights on the card include Thiago
Santos vs. Aleksandar
Rakic at light heavyweight, and Dominick
Cruz vs. Casey
Kenney at 135 pounds.
