On April 9, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s most glaring piece of unfinished business will be resolved — knock on wood.
When Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan take the cage for the co-main event of UFC 273 next Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida, it will have been 13 months since their first meeting at UFC 259. On that night last March, a competitive fight that appeared to be gradually going in favor of incumbent champ Yan ended in chaos when Yan stunned the grounded Sterling with an illegal knee. “Aljo” became the first fighter in UFC history to win an undisputed title via disqualification, both men were clearly disappointed by the result, and an immediate rematch was the obvious next move.