SUMMARY
- Aljamain Sterling opened up about his views on Arnold Allen's knee strikes on Movsar Evloev at UFC 297.
- Sterling claimed that Allen's strikes were not all illegal.
Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling opined about the controversial illegal knee incident in the fight between Movsar Evloev and Arnold Allen at UFC 297. Sterling, who won his title due to another illegal knee incident involving Petr Yan believes Allen did not strike Evloev with multiple illegal knees. Many others including Joe Rogan felt the same. However, Sterling claimed one of the knee strikes seemed to be illegal.
In an interview on The MMA Hour, Sterling said, “The Evloev was one was weird because he was standing straight up and just put his hand down. I was like ‘Brother what are you doing?’ Yeah, like get on his hands or like commit to being down so that there’s no issue.
“I thought all the knees were technically legal except the last one. But that’s like the only one he actually put his knee down, you know, so the other ones is just like well you’re putting yourself in this weird position.”
Further, Sterling admitted that the rule around striking knees on a grounded opponent is under constant debate. According to the rules, knee strikes on a grounded opponent are illegal. Originally, a grounded opponent is a fighter who has any part of his body other than the sole of his feet on the ground. Many changes have been made to this rule. However, some promotions have abided by it and some have not.
Sterling advocated for more clarity on the rule. According to a recent report by Bloody Elbow, the “California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) director Andy Foster looking to make a change to the grounded fighter rule that will have a sweeping impact on the UFC and MMA in general.”
At UFC 297, Allen struck Evloev with multiple knees in the third and final round of their fight. The referee, Marc Goddard, stopped the fight to warn Allen and give Evloev time to recuperate. However, that stole Allen’s opportunity for a TKO and he eventually lost the fight via decision.
Arnold Allen believes his knee strikes against Movsar Evloev were legal
In the final round of the fight, Allen had Evloev in a front headlock. Almighty hit Evloev with a trio of knee strikes all while the Russian’s palm was touching the ground and then flailing in the air.
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After the decision, Allen took to Instagram to express his dissatisfaction. He wrote, “In the stretcher for a black eye… I’m all good guys, losing sucks, all respect to my opponent! Bit upset about the ol knees but it is what it is, felt like they were legal Onwards and upwards.”
Following his 10-fight win streak being broken by Max Holloway, this is Allen’s second loss in a row. On the other hand, with this win at UFC 297, Evloev extended his unbeaten record to 18-0.
Aljamain Sterling won the UFC Bantamweight Championship due to Petr Yan’s illegal knee strikes
At UFC 259, Sterling contested for Yan’s UFC Bantamweight Championship. The Russian led on two of the judges’ scorecards before he landed an illegal knee on Sterling, his downed opponent, in the fourth round.
Referee Mark Smith deemed Sterling unable to continue after he consulted with the ringside doctor. ‘The Funkmaster’ became the first in UFC history to be crowned a champion via disqualification.
The doctor has called off the fight after speaking to Aljamain Sterling, who was struck with an illegal knee by Petr Yan at #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/oRLduQfraV
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 7, 2021
During his recent interview on The MMA Hour, he continued his opinion on Allen’s knee. He said, “People probably gonna say ‘oh yeah sure you benefited from [it]’. Like I didn’t benefit. I didn’t do that. Two completely different things. Took a bad shot Yan did a great job, he stopped it, I sat there tried to get his hands off my head so I could stand up without getting blasted in the face and he blast me in the face anyway.”
Sterling went on to defeat Yan at UFC 273 in their rematch via split decision. Sterling defended his title twice after that against T.J. Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo. However, he lost the title at the hands of Sean O’Malley at UFC 292.