Ahead of his bantamweight title unification rematch at UFC 273 next month, interim division titleholder, Petr Yan has claimed that he will “beat the living sh*t” out of his arch-rival, fellow champion, Aljamain Sterling – labelling his co-headlining opponent a “dog”.

Sharing a storied history, Yan, the former undisputed bantamweight champion, suffered a fourth round disqualification loss in his first attempted title defense against Sterling back in March of last year – landing a knee to a downed Sterling, leaving the Uniondale native unable to continue.

As a result, Yan dropped the title courtesy of a disqualification loss, with Sterling becoming the first champion in promotional history to land a title off the back of a disqualification.

In the time since, Sterling was booked to take on Yan in a title rematch last October at UFC 267, until failure to obtain medical clearance after invasive neck surgery prevented him from competing at the ‘Fight Island’ event.

Yan would remain on the Abu Dhabi, UAE card – drawing common-foe, Cory Sandhagen where he minted himself as the interim bantamweight champion with an impressive unanimous decision victory.

Now finally slated to rematch at UFC 273 on April 9. – the duo of Yan and Sterling have been issuing numerous barbs in each other’s direction, with the interim champion claiming he would “beat the living sh*t” out of Sterling in their rematch in response to a tweet from his fellow gold holder.

“At least I didn’t lose my dignity like you,” Petr Yan tweeted in response to Aljamain Sterling. “I can envision yourself crying after our next fight again. I will beat the living sh*t out of you dog. Looking forward to your healing process.”

Prior to his championship loss to Sterling, Yan had clinched the vacant division crown with an eventual fifth round ground strikes knockout win over former featherweight kingpin, Jose Aldo in July 2020.