Petr Yan successfully defended his bantamweight title with a masterful performance to beat Merab Dvalishvili for the second time to clos out their trilogy at UFC 333.
Afterwards, Yan was praised not only for his win but there were plnnty of calls that this title defense put him at the top of the list when it comes to all-time greats at bantamweight. But former foe Aljamain Sterling, who holds two wins over the current champion, believes as much as Yan has accomplished during his career, he still has some work to do to claim that GOAT status at 135 pounds.
“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 about anymore.”
It wasn’t long ago that it was Dvalishvili receiving that same praise after he won the title and defended it three times before falling to Yan.
Of course, Sterling as a former bantamweight champion could also enter that conversation but he says Yan isn’t far off from claiming that mythical crown.
The real key now comes down to defending the belt and potentially separating himself from the rest of the pack of former champions at 135 pounds.
“He’s definitely in the mix,” Sterling said. “He’s in the conversation with the Dominick Cruz’s, the Merab’s, T.J. Dillashaw but to just go hands down he’s the GOAT with one title defense is kind of crazy to me.
“Two-time champ, 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.”