LONDON – Petr Yan’s American Top Team coach Marcos DaMatta thinks his fighter was robbed against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 273.
Despite UFC bantamweight champion Sterling’s extensive ground control time against Yan (16-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC) in their rematch in April, DaMatta thought Yan won three of five rounds.
One judge scored the fight for Yan, and the other two in favor of Sterling (21-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) for the split decision win. The judges agreed on the scoring of every round except the opening frame, which was awarded to Sterling by two of the judges
Coach “Parrumpa,” however, argues Yan had the better moments in the round.
“I feel that he won the fight,” DaMatta told MMA Junkie. “I think he won the first, fourth and fifth. I could see the fight being a draw because of the first round, but I don’t see Petr losing that fight. It was a matter of the first round and Petr is notorious for starting slowly picking up the fight because he likes to figure out his opponent. Still being slow, I think he had more octagon control, he had more active punches and significant punches and kicks in the first round.
“So that’s why I still give him the first round and obviously second and third were for Aljo and then fourth and fifth was clear for Petr so again, let’s move forward. All we have to do is move forward and maybe do the rematch again because the first one was a wash.”
DaMatta was a late addition to Yan’s corner, so he didn’t get to spend the adequate amount of time with him in training camp. The jiu-jitsu coach was visibly frustrated at Yan repeatedly giving his back to Sterling, something he managed to avoid in their first fight at UFC 259 which ended in disqualification after Yan struck Sterling with an illegal knee in Round 4.
“I think in the rematch, all he was missing was time with me,” DaMatta said. “The first fight we had four and a half weeks, and I think it showed in the fight. He scored seven out of eight takedown attempts and he defended 12 out of 13 attempts from Aljo. So, when we spend more time together, I think we could cover more defense and more offense on Petr.
“In the second fight, I had seven days with him. There was a week before and then we had to leave for fight week. That was something we covered a lot, to not give his back and how to defend if that happens. The defense was OK, but he still has that little problem.”