After arguably the most bizarre title change in UFC history, newly crowned UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling gave his response to the MMA community on his podcast “The Weekly Scraps” following his DQ victory over Petr Yan at UFC 259.
While Yan clearly delivered an illegal knee to Sterling, who by definition was a grounded fighter, many MMA fans, commentators, and fighters criticized Sterling for embellishing his reaction to the knee.
Sterling addressed whether or not he felt like a true champion and also criticized Yan for his knowledge (or lack thereof) of the rules along with making the decision to knee him in that position altogether.
Islam Makhachev wants to help Tony Ferguson retire
March 9, 2021
After Islam Makhachev’s dominant performance that ended in a third-round submission victory over Drew Dober at UFC 259 via arm-triangle choke, the Dagestani lightweight pondered what could be next.
Makhachev is the training partner and protege of UFC lightweight champion and all-time great Khabib Nurmagomedov. In a perfect world, Makhachev would like to face an elusive rival of his close friend.
“My dream fight is Tony [Ferguson] because we have some deal with him, like a couple years now,” he said at the UFC 259 post-fight press conference.
Makhachev’s reference to his camp’s dealings with “El Cucuy” point to the five previously scheduled bouts between Ferguson and Nurmagomedov, which all fell apart in extremely unfortunate fashion.
UFC president Dana White weighs in on what's next for middleweight champ Israel Adesanya following his failed attempt to capture the light heavyweight title.