Aljamain Sterling has demanded a meeting with boss Dana White after the UFC president claimed he lost to Petr Yan last weekend.
Sterling defied the odds to outpoint interim champion Yan and make the first defence of his bantamweight title at UFC 273. The pair had previously fought at UFC 259 last March, with Yan being disqualified for landing an illegal knee after winning most of the fight.
White thinks Sterling lost the fight, despite two judges scoring it in his favour. The UFC boss said the judges in Florida "blew" their verdict and he thought Yan won three rounds of the fight.
“I thought the judges blew that one,” White said. “I had it 3-2 (for Yan). I don’t know how you guys scored it. It’s all in however you score that first round. “That fight will be there, Petr Yan is one of the baddest dudes in that division, (but) you probably do the TJ [Dillashaw] fight.”
How did you score Aljamain Sterling vs Petr Yan at UFC 273? Let us know in the comments section below
Sterling was unimpressed with White's comments, tweeting to the UFC president: "Hey man, when are we having a sit down? We clearly have a lot to discuss… PS: Go watch the first round again. You are WRONG!"
Yan landed just one more strike than Sterling throughout five rounds, but Sterling took the Russian down twice and dominated the second round. The opening five minutes was the deciding round of the fight, with many fans split in their opinions of who won the round.
The bantamweight champion said he has always been on good terms with White, but was unsurprised by his criticism. "Dana White is always going to be throwing dirt on my name. That's just what he does and I think he doesn't really think," Sterling told Cole Shelton.
"He has Yan rated so highly as such a dangerous guy that to have the grappler do that to him, he was really really shocked. Especially after the first fight because he probably thought that I had no chance in hell to win that fight either. [It] sucks to be him right now, you really wrote me off after everything you've seen that I've done in the sport and his organisation.
"It's a slap in the face but at the end of the day it doesn't bother me. I think it bothers him more clearly, because he doesn't know how to judge a fight. I think maybe he let his emotions get ahead of him, he was probably invested in Yan winning that fight and I threw a monkey wrench into their plans."
