UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling is no stranger to controversy or hot takes on his performances. Following his landmark title defense against former champ Petr Yan, plenty of MMA personalities – including Dana White and legendary referee “Big John” McCarthy – weighed in. Speaking to The MMA Hour, the champ took exception to John McCarthy’s opinion that Yan actually won the closely contested fight.
Sterling dominated rounds two and three, while Yan scored big in rounds four and five. Ultimately, it came down to who won the first round, and Aljamain Sterling went for the throat in explaining the rules of MMA to the man who literally wrote the rulebook.
Sterling Rips “big stupid” John McCarthy: “that guy sucks”
“There’s absolutely no way you could score that round — big stupid John McCarthy voice. Dude, go get a clue. I don’t know how this guy was ever the blueprint standard of MMA, because that guy sucks. His opinion stinks and it sucks.
He just says s***, and I think he just wants people to think he knows what he’s talking about. I think he had an MMA school, I think he had fighters, which one of them ever did anything? What did his school ever do?
Because clearly this guy is so great, so what has he ever accomplished, other than trying to judge people and being completely wrong about the scoring criteria of the fight.
If you want to have an opinion, have an opinion, John. It’s OK, but it doesn’t mean you’re correct, because you are not going by the criteria of how you score a fight. So please just be quiet and let the big boys do what they do at a high level, something you’ve never been able to accomplish.
Relax there, buddy.” Sterling elaborated:
“The rulebook, as per the criteria, you score damage, effective striking, and my striking was more effective and I controlled and dictated where the fight took place that entire round.
So I think it’s pretty black and white. And let’s not even talk about the elbow. I cracked him on his head with that, made him stumble backward, that was the most significant strike of that round.
So people that say robbery, what is a robbery? I don’t even know what a robbery is anymore. Everything is a robbery because your guy didn’t win the round.”
Do you think Big John got this one wrong, or did Petr Yan deserve the victory? Let us know in the comments.
