Petr Yan witnessed one of his life’s greatest disappointments at UFC 259. He got himself disqualified after landing an illegal knee on a downed Aljamain Sterling. This incident caused quite a stir in the fighting community as both the bantamweight contenders received equal bashing from the fans. But three years after the incident, the Russian mixed martial artist can finally laugh about it.

As the former bantamweight champion gets ready for a showdown against Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Fight Night 248, he had a brief talk with UFC’s social media star, Nina Marie Danielle, who asked him, “What is something your coach has said to you in between rounds that has changed the direction of a fight for you?”. Needless to say, Yan had the UFC 259 disqualification in his mind.  

‘No Mercy’ replied, “[In the] first fight with Aljamain Sterling, I asked, ‘Do I throw a knee?’ They told me, ‘Yes, knee, knee!’”. As soon as he reflected on his first fight with the ‘Funkmaster’, he burst out laughing. It was indeed the gravest mistake of his MMA career, where he lost his belt due to an alleged miscommunication with his coaches. The referee in charge, Mark Smith, had given prior warnings to Yan, and with the illegal strike landing clean on Sterling, he had to disqualify him. Having lost his belt, ‘No Mercy’ never got his undisputed title back, despite winning the interim belt at UFC 267.

Had he not thrown a knee, Yan would have won via a unanimous decision and retained his championship belt. Following UFC 259 he claimed that he didn’t actually check Sterling’s knee to see if was grounded and simply assumed that the latter’s knee was raised. But alas, kneeing a grounded opponent was not approved back then. Now, with the new definition of a grounded opponent, we might expect to witness Petr Yan’s DQ change into a no-contest. 

Even Sterling expressed shock at winning the belt via DQ, however, the fight community was not kind to him because of it. However, he was grateful to the referee and the doctors stopped the bout. But during that moment, what did Yan think?

Petr Yan reveals his thoughts after hitting Aljamain Sterling with an illegal knee

During the countdown for UFC 273, ‘No Mercy’ reflected on the biggest mistake of his career. He said. “At that moment I was like: ‘What have I done? It was all so close.’ But I think the worst scenario for me in that fight should have been ruled as ‘No Contest’ instead of awarding a loser fighter with the belt. After such a fight, a fighter with dignity would not accept this title and would not name himself a champion.”

In the post-fight press conference for UFC 259, ‘No Mercy’ admitted, “It sucks, and I think him as a fighter he also [doesn’t] want to accept the belt this way. And if he’s going to be healthy, hopefully we have the rematch soon.” The duo soon fought once again at UFC 273. But this time, Aljamain Sterling dominated the Russian fighter for five rounds and won via unanimous decision. 

What are your thoughts on Petr Yan’s disqualification, especially in light of the change in rules introduced this month? Do you think his coaches are to blame for it? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.