Petr Yan failed the first defense of his bantamweight title, when he faced Aljamain Sterling at UFC 259 on March 6 (March 7 in Australia). The pair squared off in the scheduled for five rounds matchup, kicking off a championship tripleheader live on pay-per-view.
The contest didn’t go the distance, and saw a quite unusual ending. The fight was officially stopped at 4 minutes and 29 seconds into the fourth round.
At the beginning of Round 4 Yan was reportedly ahead on the judges scorecards. Midway through the last minute he delivered knee to the head, while Sterling was already downed.
After that, the doctor was seen inside the Octagon, talking to challenger. The latter was deemed unable to continue and that was it.
SOUND ON. ?
Following an intentional foul, the ref steps in and puts an end to this contest. #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/2vb6EkvGBT
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) March 7, 2021
Ultimately, Yan was disqualified due to an intentional foul. Sterling was awarded the win.
Due an illegal knee, Aljamain Sterling has won the UFC bantamweight championship at #UFC259 via disqualification, pic.twitter.com/zhxXngzMMA
— ESPN (@espn) March 7, 2021
In addition to the belt, Sterling’s official record adds the sixth win in a row and updates to 20-4. Yan loses the title and drops to 15-2.
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In the main event of UFC 259 Jan Blachowicz defends his light heavyweight title against middleweight champion Israral Adesanya. In the co-main event two-weight champion Amanda Nunes defends her featherweight belt against Megan Anderson.
The full fight results from the event can be found here.
The post UFC 259 video: Petr Yan disqualified, Aljamain Sterling hit by illegal knee, new bantamweight champion named appeared first on FIGHTMAG.