Cory Sandhagen: It ‘would be a huge mistake’ for Petr Yan to expect to ‘crush’ Aljamain Sterling in rematch

Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan will lastly settle their variations at UFC 273 subsequent Saturday night time (April 9, 2022).

It’s been a protracted highway for every man to get again within the Octagon collectively. At UFC 259 in Mar. 2021, Sterling turned the brand new Bantamweight champion when defeating Yan by fourth-round disqualification after “No Mercy” landed an unlawful knee. The champion has since had neck surgery whereas Yan went five-round with Cory Sandhagen in Oct. 2021 to earn a unanimous resolution and an interim title for his efforts (watch highlights).

Sandhagen can be no stranger to Sterling who handed him his first UFC loss in June 2020 by first-round rear-naked choke submission. Along with his familiarity in thoughts — together with seeing how the primary Sterling vs. Yan bout went — “The Sandman” doesn’t suppose Yan ought to take his rival flippantly as indicated on social media.

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CHAMPIONSHIP DOUBLE DIP! Final Combating Championship (UFC) returns to Jacksonville, Fla., on Sat., April 9, 2022, with a world championship doubleheader that can see Featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski, defend in opposition to No. 4-ranked division contender, “Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung. In UFC 273’s pay-per-view (PPV) co-main occasion, Bantamweight kingpin, Aljamain Sterling, runs it again with interim titleholder and former champion, Petr Yan.

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“I feel Sterling is all the time harmful as a result of he’s such grappler, and I feel Yan is tremendous harmful as a result of he punches laborious as hell,” Sandhagen instructed MMA Junkie. “I feel Yan is probably going the extra well-rounded man, however I feel if Yan goes in pondering that he’s simply gonna crush him due to the way in which that the final battle went, I feel that might be an enormous mistake on Yan’s half, however I don’t suppose he’s that poor of a competitor.

“I feel that he’s gonna go in and do very well once more and never let the final battle influence him, and I feel Yan is simply sort of a greater all-around competitor additionally than Sterling is,” he continued. “However that being stated, Sterling’s an excellent fighter. He’s an excellent competitor and he’s grappler so there’s all the time that.”

Sterling has additionally expressed his supreme confidence over current months regardless of how the primary encounter performed out. Beginning off comparatively robust, many imagine Sterling pale down the stretch and the champion himself has admitted it wasn’t his greatest total efficiency.

“If I used to be him (Sterling), I’d positively change the tempo that I used to be preventing,” Sandhagen stated. “It was somewhat bit chaotic, however it additionally threw Yan off so much too in order that was a constructive that got here from that, however you noticed within the later rounds that was positively not going to be one thing that might have benefitted him in Rounds 4 and 5. If I used to be Sterling, I’d positively change the tempo of the battle.

“I’d not attempt to make it as frantic as he sort of made it within the first one after which if I used to be Yan, I’d in all probability do the very same factor that he did within the first one as a result of if Aljamain slows down the tempo, that simply implies that Yan will get to battle at a much less chaotic tempo which I feel Yan does very well in so yeah they each positively have some corrections to make,” he concluded.