Aljamain Sterling explains why he favors Cory Sandhagen to defeat Petr Yan at UFC 267

UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling explained why he favors Cory Sandhagen to defeat Petr Yan this weekend at UFC 267.

Sterling has fought both Sandhagen and Yan, so he has a pretty good idea of what both men bring to the cage. With Sandhagen, Sterling was able to tap him out and submit him with a rear-naked choke when they met at UFC 250 in June 2020. As for Yan, he was beating Sterling at UFC 259 earlier this year up until he landed an illegal knee and was DQed. It was the first time that a title changed hands in UFC history due to a disqualification, and Sterling has been the UFC bantamweight champ for six months now.

The UFC originally booked the rematch between Sterling and Yan for UFC 267, but Sterling was forced off the card due to lingering issues. Instead, the UFC called upon Sandhagen to take on Yan for the interim bantamweight belt while Yan is out. Speaking to MMAFighting.com in a recent interview, Sterling was asked to share his prediction on the fight. As far as Sterling goes, he actually favors Sandhagen to win and he explained why.

“(Sandhagen) is not like Yan, where he’s throwing combinations and he’s falling into his punches to get a lot more punching power behind it. It’s two completely different styles but I like what Sandhagen does and I think that’s what’s going to get him the win,” Sterling said.

As far as Sterling goes, while he would personally rather fight Yan to settle the score with him, he says that he actually considers Sandhagen to be the harder matchup for him.

“If you ask me who I’d rather fight, I would rather fight Petr Yan. Because Sandhagen is that dangerous, in my opinion. People might think, ‘Oh, you steamrolled him.’ That was a calculated fight to the tee. If I was off even a split second, I could have been on my back and I could have been the guy who’s taking a nap looking up at the lights. That’s a reality that I knew going into that fight and I had to make sure I was on-point,” Sterling said.

Do you agree with Aljamain Sterling that Petr Yan will be defeated by Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267?