“I can shoot one hundred times, it’ll be a bad night for him,” Aljamain Sterling plans to put Khabib style pressure on Petr Yan

“I can shoot one hundred times, it’ll be a bad night for him,” Aljamain Sterling plans to put Khabib style pressure on Petr Yan
Aljamain Sterling
Aljamain Sterling

The match between the Bantamweight champion Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling is one of the highly anticipated matches for UFC 259. This is going to be Yan’s first title defense and Sterling is aiming to take the title from him.

In his latest interview with ESPN, Sterling shares his gameplan to keep relentless pressure on Petr Yan throughout the fight. Sterling says, “When I break it down, styles make fights, no two fights are the same and it’s about who shows up,”

“I think he’s been tested, I don’t think he’s necessarily had guys attacking him constantly like a Khabib-style type of pressure looking to get him to the ground, and that changes the tempo of the fight.”

“He can try to stop the takedown with punches as much as he wants. I just need one takedown. I can shoot one hundred times, he can stop it one hundred times. If I get that one takedown, that 101st attempt, I get him down on his back, it’s gonna be a long night for that guy.”

“That’s what I honestly truly do believe. He’s good on the ground, I know he can hurt me, I know what the threats are but at the end of the day, he has to connect. I just need to get my hands on him and it’ll be a bad night for him.”

Sterling is very well aware of Petr Yan’s predictable approach

Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling
Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan

Aljamain Sterling knows that Petr Yan possess a threat for him. Ajio thinks his approach is very much predictable and ‘Funkmaster’ can tackle it very well. Sterling added, “I know what I’m getting,”

“I still know he’s dangerous and he’s fundamentally sound. I just wanna know how much gains he’s made in his defensive approach for stopping a takedown.  There’s a reason he pulled out of the fight from the first one.”

“We never had no clarity on why he pulled out of that fight. It’s gotta be something up. Whether or not he thought he found someone who could help mimic my style, but my style is like Sandhagen’s on the feet, it’s unpredictable when it hits the ground.”

“I could scramble off my back, I could submit you off my back, I could do damage off my back, I could do damage on top, I got good top control, and I got good pressure against the cage, ala Kamaru Usman.”

“So whatever it is, I think we get into those clinch situations, takedown situations, I think the fight favors me.”

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