News Aljamain Sterling injured and out of UFC 267 title fight vs. Petr Yan

[jban]

Interim title fight makes most sense in this case. Dillashaw vs. Yan, like a couple of posters mentioned already.

 

[mirellale]

Mystic Petr

or his manager

 

[I Lie To Girls]

GOATS gonna GOAT.

 

[svmr_db]

Get Rob Font in there, strip Aljo

 

[The XL]

Reasoning like that is kayfabe. That's no way to determine whether a champion in a sport should be stripped.

You can spin it however you like, but no one really sees Sterling as the champ. It would have been the same scenario if Anthony Smith took the DQ vs Jon Jones

 

[pv3Hpv3p]

I don't call professional cage fighters 'scared' or 'ducks' but with all the controversy around Aljo's first "win" this is a really bad look for Sterling... Any word on what happened?

 

[JayPettryMMA]

Keep featherin it, brother.

 

[13Seconds]

What?

Wow.

Aw hell no

 

[Bojka]

Let's be real he got neck surgery and the UFC was pushing for his return. No way you can come back that quick

"Sterling, 31, said he should be ready to defend his title by October or early November."
- April 9th

https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id...eight-champion-aljamain-sterling-neck-surgery

He apparently had the issue for 10 years and decided to get the surgery right after being gifted the title. Said in April that he would be back by Oct or early Nov, but now it's going to take longer.

I think it's obvious that his decisions have been at least partially motivated by not wanting to re-match Yan. He wants Yan to fight and to lose or get injured.

 

[Doughie99]

Dana didn’t want Aljo to get Ppv points. Sterling was like nope.

that could be it. Something like that.
well...if UFC does an interim title or strips Sterling....then we'll know that there's been some....ah.....disharmony.

 

[MCS]

Yearning for an Interim belt now...

 

[Streeter]

Finally a fighter even more disliked than Conor by hardcores. Aljo is a coward ass bitch. Went total Hollywood to sell the fake effects of the Yan knee falling all over him self , then celebrates being gifted a win when he was getting straight worked , now pulls out of fight rather than face Yan again.

At least Conor shows up n never cancels .

 

[snugglecakes]

Yan vs Dillshaw for interim title.

Yeah and then remove interim from that sentence

 

[Paynebringer]

Don't tell me, he a caught a knee to the head while shopping at Walmart...

 

[svmr_db]

I bet Rob Font will jump at the chance despite a minimal training camp if UFC makes him the offer.

 

[Other]

snake + duck =

 

[ThePimblettEra]

"That guy Aljo? Heart of a lion, man. A true warrior."
- Nobody, ever

 

[Doughie99]

Pulling out of a big card like Abu Dhabi will piss UFC off even more than usual.
Dana's gonna blow a gasket, I guarantee it. He'll do SOMETHING as a "F you" to Sterling.

 

[rjmbrd]

Not surprised. If anyone has listened to him talk on his podcast lately, he's always talking about nerve issues and other lingering issues from his surgery. Coming back that soon from such a major surgery was never a good idea.

Anyways. Tj is injured. Sandhagen just lost.

PUT ROB FONT VS PETER YAN together ASAP.

Holy shit Rob Font for the interim title next month. That is legitimately the only appropriate fight to book if he's ready. I do wish he got more time to prepare for Yan but in the UFC these guys have to take whatever opportunities they can on the way up.

If you noticed, Aljo was on Embedded at the Performance Institute on Wednesday, so this likely isn't some random surprise, he's at the UFC facilities.

Presumably he just needs more time to recuperate, the turnaround seemed to fast in the first place.

 

[SKYNET]

What? Wow.

I'm 80/20 it was you who called this in the PBP thread the night of the first match.