Yan completely outclassed and humiliated Sterling

[fortheo]

Yea, but how does Sterling win a rematch ? His wrestling is not good enough and pace was only good for one round

His pace will be better without spamming takedowns. Let's not act like the striking wasn't competitive in this fight while Sterling was fresh.

 

[Chael_Sonnen]

It looked like illegal knee to me,but aljo could have gone on.5 minutes he woulda been fine. But he was on the screwjob soon as it happened

Oh come on, your bias for Russian fighters has reached an all time high.

It was DEFINITELY and illegal knee. No ifs or buts.

That was a fight ending strike. Sure, he might have been able to take 10 minutes off and come back on wobbly legs, but lets not pretend if he had of taken that shot standing up that he wouldn't have gotten KO'd.

Yan should know the rules. If you throw a strike like that, you deserve to lose the fight.

 

[ScholarDayo]

Sterling can still beat him he just has to pace himself better

 

[fortheo]

I thought Aljo looked so nervous. He was so wild, especially in round 1. He threw flying knees, spinning elbows, scissor takedowns, flipping, flopping, etc. Everything was pretty technical in rd 1, but it got exponentially sloppier with each minute. And, as one might expect, it fatigued the fuck out of him.

I want to attribute it to a mismanagement of energy in his first 5 round fight, and, more importantly, his first UFC title fight. He was nervous and maybe a bit scared of staying at range.

But, it seemed like it was his gameplan from the beginning: throw everything but the kitchen sink at Yan and break his will with pressure.

I'm assuming he expected more success with takedowns and his top game. But he had to have been prepared for a battle on his feet. And yet, it seemed like his plan was to overwhelm Yan with all his funky ninja moves like the one where he threw a spinning elbow but was cut off at the 30% point and had his back taken 7 times in 4 rounds. That one may have cost him.

I like his chances in the rematch though. All of Aljo's mistakes are pretty blatant and easy for him to see and fix. I expect to see him only shoot like half as much in the rematch and attack Jan's body more. There's a lot to learn from this fight for Aljo.

 

[the fight game]

Yes. Agreed.

 

[ViD]

His pace will be better without spamming takedowns. Let's not act like the striking wasn't competitive in this fight while Sterling was fresh.

It was competitive only for the first half of the first round when he had an insane pace, can he keep it for a longer period ?

 

[Sickbro69420]

 

[fortheo]

It was competitive only for the first half of the first round when he had an insane pace, can he keep it for a longer period ?

?? first three rounds were competitive. There's a reason why one judge had Aljo up on the score cards. I had Yan slowly pulling away with it, but it's not like Aljo wasn't competitive on the feet for the first few rounds before the nearly 20 spammed TD attempts drained him. It seems pretty clear to me that Aljo with better energy management can pose problems to Yan.

 

[Eternalwarriorking]

so fucking salty about this fight. Yan was beating seemingly everywhere and then just pulled the trigger on an obviously sus knee

fuck

And then Sterling goes in for an oscar winning performance to get the DQ. Such hot garbage imo

 

[ViD]

?? first three rounds were competitive. There's a reason why one judge had Aljo up on the score cards. I had Yan slowly pulling away with it, but it's not like Aljo wasn't competitive on the feet for the first few rounds before the nearly 20 spammed TD attempts drained him. It seems pretty clear to me that Aljo with better energy management can pose problems to Yan.

Aljo had barely any success in striking, he was holding Yan against the cage and that was the only reason he “won” the second round, because of control

 

[dominion]

We're going to pretend Sterling wasn't going to get finished in about a minute longer?

 

[shoorik1987]

I like his chances in the rematch though. All of Aljo's mistakes are pretty blatant and easy for him to see and fix. I expect to see him only shoot like half as much in the rematch and attack Jan's body more. There's a lot to learn from this fight for Aljo.

It was competitive only for the first half of the first round when he had an insane pace, can he keep it for a longer period ?

I agree with @ViD here.
The only reason that Aljo had some success in the start is because of the pace. Also Yan is know to start slow and study his opponent for first round.

Also between rounds think 2 and 3, Aljos corner told him, keep the pressure up, when you're pressuring he doesn't do anything.
So that high pressure was a strategy.

If the pace slows down and Aljo tries to play a slow technical and tactical game, that's Yan's type of fight and Yan is better at it than Aljo.

If pace slows down, Yan will take him apart even faster. The pace is what kept Yan at bay.

 

[Shocktagon]

He didn't humiliate anyone as badly as he humiliated himself when he was moments away from a legit victory and decided to make one of the biggest blunders in the history of the sport.

 

[Mike]

It looked like illegal knee to me,but aljo could have gone on.5 minutes he woulda been fine. But he was on the screwjob soon as it happened

How can we possibly know how hurt he was? He ate a knee flush to the face.

 

[HHJ]

Oh come on, your bias for Russian fighters has reached an all time high.

It was DEFINITELY and illegal knee. No ifs or buts.

That was a fight ending strike. Sure, he might have been able to take 10 minutes off and come back on wobbly legs, but lets not pretend if he had of taken that shot standing up that he wouldn't have gotten KO'd.

Yan should know the rules. If you throw a strike like that, you deserve to lose the fight.

I just said it was illegal brah
but aljo hamming it up sucked and i didnt like to watch this. Cant look at him the same way again.

 

[HHJ]

How can we possibly know how hurt he was? He ate a knee flush to the face.

Because of how I PERCIEVED how he reacted. He reacted like a man trying to get the fight stopped.

 

[Mike]

Because of how I PERCIEVED how he reacted. He reacted like a man trying to get the fight stopped.

Well he said he didn't want it to end that way. He doesn't make the rules. I dunno looked to me like he took a knee he wasn't ready for flush to the face while already hurt. Bit weird that people are sure he wasn't hurt by it. It wasn't a graze like say kos vs Rumble.

 

[HHJ]

Well he said he didn't want it to end that way. He doesn't make the rules. I dunno looked to me like he took a knee he wasn't ready for flush to the face while already hurt. Bit weird that people are sure he wasn't hurt by it. It wasn't a graze like say kos vs Rumble.

no it wasnt a graze,but im just sayin either you got fucked up by it or you didnt. He seemed too much into the acting to convince me it reallly hurt him that bad.

 

[Mike]

no it wasnt a graze,but im just sayin either you got fucked up by it or you didnt. He seemed too much into the acting to convince me it reallly hurt him that bad.

People react differently to being concussed. But let's say hypothetically he was badly hurt but aware enough to continue. What should he do, continue the fight badly compromised when he was already hurt? So mma fans of all people aren't salty about it? It's a no win situation caused by Yan. I dont like seeing guys hurt by fouls try to continue only to he violently finished. Fouls should have consequences, especially at that level.

It was a blatantly dirty strike.

 

[HHJ]

People react differently to being concussed. But let's say hypothetically he was badly hurt but aware enough to continue. What should he do, continue the fight badly compromised when he was already hurt? So mma fans of all people aren't salty about it? It's a no win situation caused by Yan. I dont like seeing guys hurt by fouls try to continue only to he violently finished. Fouls should have consequences, especially at that level.

It was a blatantly dirty strike.

Yes but im sorry i cant accept his faking is way out of the fight,even if it was an illegal strike. If he was fit to continue as I believe him to be,the referee should have taken 2 points,which would have been worth the strike and 5 mins to recover. He would have been ahead or at least tied.

 

[Strijfy]

How? He was getting tossed around like a child. I think Yan had like 12 takedown and a knockdown. Aljo landed one knee and then punched his arms the entire time.

I was wondering why Sterling kept on going for the take down, Yan was flinging him around easily