Aljamain Sterling rips “paper champion” Petr Yan over his “single ply” resume

Aljamain Sterling thinks Petr Yan’s record is nothing to write home about, as he slammed the UFC bantamweight kingpin for being a “paper champion”.

After Henry Cejudo announced his retirement from MMA, the bantamweight title was open for the taking. Therefore UFC standout Petr Yan and Jose Aldo faced off at UFC 251 for a shot at the title. After four rounds of action, the Russian bantamweight sealed the TKO victory in the final round. He is currently undefeated since joining the UFC in 2018 and has beaten the likes of Urijah Faber and Jimmie Rivera.

However, Sterling believes Yen hasn’t accomplished enough to be deserving of the bantamweight crown. Like Yan, “The Funk Master” has also been on a tear through the 135-pound division. He is currently ranked number 2 in the division and has shown solid improvements since his last loss in 2017. Since then, he has amassed 5 consecutive wins and in his last contest, the 30-year challenged the rising contender Cory Sandhagen. He was able to neutralize the offence of his opponent and finish him by rear-naked choke in less than two minutes of their fight.

Following his great track record, Sterling is touted as one of the best possible matchups for Petr Yan’s first title defence. The top-ranked contender is very confident he can take the bantamweight crown from “No Mercy.”

“Paper Yan is a paper champion. His resume is single ply, too thin to even wipe my ass with it,” Sterling wrote on Instagram. “Hasn’t beaten a single guy in the top five. So you know I’m coming on that [peach emoji ]no tissues….pause!”

Fans appeared divided over Sterling’s strong-worded post. Some fans shared words of support as they believe Yan will have a “rude awakening when he meets you”. Others cringed at his toilet paper reference and claimed he needs to rematch Marlon Moraes next before he can get a shot at the title.

Moraes finished Sterling with a shocking knockout finish in the first round of their 2017 bout. He currently sits at No. 1 on the UFC’s bantamweight rankings board. With UFC president Dana White yet to confirm a Sterling vs Yan title fight, Moraes believes he knows why.

“Dana White’s an MMA fan. He’s a fighting fan. I don’t think he wants to see one guy trying to get the other guy’s head off but the other guy is just avoiding him, trying to hug him, scared to get hit. I think he wants to see a guy who’s going to get in there, is going to hit him, is going to hit back. If that guy doesn’t get knocked out, he’s going to get knocked out. I think that’s what Dana and that’s what the fans want to see,” Moraes said to Lucas Grandsire of MyMMANews.

Would you like to see a rematch between Marlon Moraes and Aljamain Sterling? Or do you think The Funk Master has done enough to earn a shot at the title?