Morning Report: Petr Yan reveals why he withdrew from scheduled title defense against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 256

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting Over the weekend, it was revealed that the highly anticipated bantamweight title fight between champion Petr Yan and number one contender Aljamain Sterling that was set for UFC 256 had been postponed due to “personal reasons” for Yan. Now, we know what those reasons are.
Speaking on Instagram Live yesterday (courtesy of RT Sport), Yan revealed that the decision to delay his fight with Sterling stemmed from issues with his visa and travel.
“Everything’s in force for the fight. It’s going to be postponed for about a month and a half, but everything’s in order,” Yan said. “There were different problems, with the flight, with the visa, during training I flew away for a visa deadline, lots of factors. We decided with the team to move everything to next year, perhaps the card will be more suitable.”
What the specific issues are with his visa are not known at this time as last week, Yan posted to Instagram declaring he had obtained a work visa. However, with the event just a few weeks away, it could simply be a matter of timing, as the bantamweight champion went on to say in his Instagram Live session that the magnitude of his fight with Sterling factored into his decision.
““Everything is good, training continues,” Yan said. “In the past, I could fly out to battle without thinking about anything, I could take risks. Now I need to do everything right, so that afterwards there won’t be any, ‘this wasn’t right, that wasn’t right.’”
Yan won the bantamweight title with a fifth-round stoppage of Jose Aldo at UFC 251, but in Sterling he faces arguably his most difficult competition in the division. Sterling is on a five fight win streak in the division with four of them coming over currently ranked opponents. But though Sterling is on an impressive run, the champion is confident that when they do finally meet, the outcome will be the same.
“I see that I can beat him, it would be stupid not to believe in yourself. The fight will happen,” Yan said.

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[h=1]SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE[/h] Sterling’s reaction.
Jessica Andrade.
Big plans.
Henry being Henry.
She’s not wrong.
Response.
The Suga Show is back.
Fight poster.

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[h=1]FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS[/h] Cody Law (1-0) vs. Kenny Champion (2-0); Bellator 254, Dec. 10.
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[h=1]FINAL THOUGHTS[/h] Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

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