“No way he won that first round”- John McCarthy weighs in on Aljamain Sterling getting the split decision against Petr Yan at UFC 273
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John McCarthy on Aljamain Sterling
Petr Yan faced his arch-nemesis, Aljamain Sterling at the co-main event of UFC 273 for the undisputed bantamweight title. He lost his belt t Sterling after hitting him with an illegal knee back at UFC 259. He was unhappy with the way things turned out, and he waited for 13 months to get his hands on the champ.
Sterling was coming off from career-changing neck surgery, and he was out of action for over 9 months. Yan, on the other hand, fought Cory Sandhagen for the interim bantamweight title, and he looked better than ever. The fight started and Sterling took a more measured approach, he took his time to feel out his opponent in the first round, and Yan was fighting a little too emotionally.
After a close first round, Sterling dominated Yan in rounds 2 and 3, but Yan made a comeback and easily won rounds 4 and 5. Everything was hanging onto round 1, and most experts had Yan winning the fight, judges saw it a little differently, and they gave the edge to Sterling.
“Won the belt the way it’s supposed to be won“- John McCarthy is proud of Aljamain Sterling’s performance against Petr Yan
UFC president, Dana White thought judges blew the decision, and Yan should’ve been the winner. There’s a lot of debate going around this, and the most experienced referee in the game, John McCarthy offered his take on the fight.
On the Weighing in podcast, he said, “I was very impressed with Aljamain and the way he fought, but there’s no way he won that first round. The heavier shots were landed easily by Yan, and I thought it was a smart tactic by Aljamain to stay on the outside, to move continuously, but he didn’t land much. He landed a couple of kicks, not real hard, and he got hit with some heavy shots for a little bit and right near the end, Yan really started landing some good shots.”
“I’m not upset with him winning the fight. I thought he actually fought a very smart fight. He fought well, and you’ve got to give props. He won the belt the way it’s supposed to be won,” John concluded.
Also read – “Judges blew that one”- Dana White claims he had Petr Yan as the winner of the UFC 273 co-main event
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Suryansh Thakur
(1600 Articles Published)