Aljamain Sterling needs to see more from Petr Yan before declaring him the bantamweight GOAT.
Yan (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) retained his title when he rallied to beat Merab Dvalishvili (21-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) by unanimous decision in Saturday's UFC 333 co-main event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. A former UFC bantamweight champion himself, Sterling holds two title wins over Yan. While he praises the Russian for his performances, he thinks recency bias is clouding everyone's judgement.
"I would say from a technical standpoint, if you want to say his technique is really, really good, and he's a dog when he's in there, I 100 percent agree," Sterling said on his "Weekly Scraps" podcast. "I'm not going to dismiss that. I'm not going to deny that greatness.
He's a technical savage when he's in there, but what do you consider GOAT? I don't even know anymore because it seems like the lines are so blurred that I don't even know what the conversation is really even about anymore."
Sterling is currently tied with his teammate, Dvalishvili, for most consecutive bantamweight title defenses at three.
"He's definitely in the mix," Sterling added on Yan. "He's in the conversation with Dominick Cruz, Merab, T.J. Dillashaw, but to just go hands down he's the GOAT with one title defense is kind of crazy to me. To become a two-time champ in itself, that alone is hard. But one title defense, I don't know if that does it for me, but he's definitely in the conversation."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Aljamain Sterling struggles to call Petr Yan bantamweight GOAT after UFC 333
