Robert Whittaker says Aljamain Sterling can’t rightfully call himself the UFC bantamweight champion.
Yan (16-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) lost his title to Sterling (20-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) by disqualification last year at UFC 259 when he struck him with an illegal knee at the end of Round 4, which rendered Sterling unable to continue. Sterling, who was visibly upset in the moment, eventually embraced becoming champion, and Whittaker, a former UFC middleweight champion, isn’t a fan of the way he’s handled things.
“The character, he’s gone with it,” Whittaker told Fox Sports Australia. “It’s just too far because he can fight. He’s a phenomenal fighter. He is unbelievable. But you can’t go claiming you’re the best in the world from it either because he didn’t win, Petr lost. Sterling didn’t win, Petr lost. That is how it happened. That is the undeniable truth of the matter. So you can’t go around saying ‘I’m the champ, I’m the best in the world’ because you didn’t win the belt. You were given it. It’s different.”
Whittaker thinks Sterling is likely trying to capitalize on marketing himself and the fight before he rematches Yan in Saturday’s UFC 273 co-main event at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla..
“But like I said before, there’s the business side of it and the longevity side of whatever it is he’s trying to do, and he’s done that,” Whittaker said. “I just think he’s taking it too far, a bit disrespectful.”
He continued, “He was looking really good in the beginning of that fight because Petr is a bit of a slow starter. He always comes in stronger the longer the fight goes on, and you could see that happening in that first fight of theirs.”
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