April 8, 2022 at 11:33 AM EDT
Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan face off for the bantamweight title at UFC 273 at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
This is the second time these two guys faced off. Back in March of 2021, Yan was disqualified late in the 4th round for hitting Sterling in the head with an illegal knee strike.
Aljamain Sterling comes into this fight with a 20-3 record overall and he has won six fights in a row and that last win came against Yan. When the disqualification happened Sterling was outstriking Yan 97-86 but he was taken down seven times. Sterling is averaging 4.84 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 2.20 significant strikes per minute. Sterling is averaging 1.77 successful takedowns every 15 minutes but he is only successful on 24 percent of his takedown attempts. Sterling is only stopping 41 percent of his takedown attempts and in this fight he needs to try and stop Yan from taking him down. In this fight, if Sterling can do a better job of keeping the fight on the feet, he should be in good shape.
On the side of this matchup is Petr Yan who sits with a 16-2 record overall and his only loss in the UFC came against Sterling. Yan is hungry coming into this one because he felt like he was going to win that fight before he was disqualified. Yan’s last fight came against Corey Sandhagen In October of 2021 and it went the distance, but he was able to win by unanimous decision. Yan is averaging 5.98 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 4.14 significant strikes per minute. Yan is averaging 1.75 successful takedowns every 15 minutes and he is successful on 61 percent of those takedown attempts. Yan also stops 89 percent of his opponents takedown attempts.
Petr Yan should have won that last fight against Sterling if it wasn’t for being disqualified but he’s not going to make the same mistake in this one. Look for Yan to get to the fight to the ground and he will grind out a victory. There isn’t a lot of value on the money line, but there is with Yan to win by decision. Back Yan to win by decision.