UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling has faced a considerable amount of criticism and backlash over the last couple years, ever since he became champion at UFC 259 in March of 2021.
This would of course be due to how he won the belt, via disqualification in a fight he was losing to former champion Petr Yan.
It appeared Yan was cruising to a handed victory, breaking Sterling down minute by minute as the fight went on. However, as we all know by now he threw, and landed an illegal knee to the downed Sterling late in round four. Once it was declared Sterling couldn’t continue, the referee stopped the fight and awarded the title to Sterling.
This is the first, and thus far the only time a UFC title ever changed hands via disqualification.
Sterling stated the following in a Q&A he did on his YouTube channel when asked about the lack of support surrounding him:
“I know I’ve been judged based on my first fight with Yan, and that’s the only fight the fans have seen, they haven’t seen any of my other ones. I feel like I am wrongly criticized for something that people have no idea in dealing with. They say I was acting, but dude, I literally saw black when I got hit with the knee in the head. I’m…
