UFC 259 on March 6th is shaping up to be one of the biggest events of the year for the promotion with the news that a third title fight has now been added to the line-up as bantamweight champion Petr Yan goes up against Aljamain Sterling.
This fight had previously been slated for UFC 256 in December and will see Yan looking to make the first defense of his title after winning the vacant belt back in July of last year with a TKO victory over Jose Aldo.
That had marked Sterling’s sixth UFC win in a row, having also defeat the likes of Urijah Faber, Jimmie Rivera and John Dodson on his way to being crowned champion.
Now he takes on Sterling, who has rebounded perfectly from a disturbing 67 second KO loss to Marlon Moraes back in 2017, going on to compiled a five-fight winning streak in the years since.
That run began with wins over Brett Johns and Cody Stamman in 2018, and he’s followed that up with further victories against Jimmie Rivera, Pedro Munhoz and most recently Cody Sandhagen.
Yan vs. sterling joins a stacked UFC 259 card that already fields a main event clash of the champions as middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya moves up to light-heavyweight to challenge the newly installed titleholder Yan Blachowicz, while champ-champ Amanda Nunes defense her featherweight belt against Megan Anderson.
