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Between 2020 and 2022, Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan fought intensely for control of the UFC bantamweight championship. Yan was disqualified from their first fight for taking an illegal knee. Despite the clarity of the foul, Sterling was often charged with staging an injury in order to "capture" Yan's belt. In their rematch a year later, Sterling prevailed by a tight split decision to establish his reign as the undisputed 135-pound champion.
Between the two battles and in the run-up to them, there was a lot of trash-talking, with Yan fans being especially harsh to "Funkmaster." Following the DQ incident, Petr alluded to Aljamain as a clown, and the American's social media was bombarded with clown emojis for months as he gradually recovered from neck surgery.
Prior to their individual UFC 280 matches, Yan, and his bitter ran into each other in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Surprisingly, they got along well. Although Yan has never acknowledged the reality of the outcome of their second fight, he appears to have forgotten about the years-long public hatred he displayed toward Sterling.
The interaction was posted by Aljamain Sterling on his YouTube channel with the caption "unexpected outcome." Aljamain was engaged in small talk with Petr, who questioned his arrival time. Then, without being asked, Yan took the step to shake hands with "Funkmaster."
Before leaving for Abu Dhabi, Sterling expressed his thoughts for Yan in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
“Right now, Yan’s not a factor for me,” he said. “But I’m sure there will still be some tension between us. In the back of his mind, I’m sure he wants to run it back. In the back of my mind, I know I’m going to step back in there with him. I know how good he is, and I know he’ll get back to the championship level. I’ll see him again.”
At UFC 280, Sterling will defend the 135-pound title against T.J. Dillashaw, the former bantamweight champion who lost his title after testing positive for EPO. Although Dillashaw recently served a two-year suspension and had knee surgery, bookmakers are rating him as an underdog against the favorite Sterling in a close odd.
Petr Yan will compete against rising star Sean O'Malley. Everyone believes that Yan will prevail in this match, but the underdog O'Malley is no pushover. Yan has mainly stopped his social media trash talk after referring to "Suga" as a "pink poodle" in order to focus on his training. The Russian says,
"My fists will do the talking."