Jeff Smith 
@adminAljamain Sterling announced that he will be getting neck surgery on April 15 to repair a herniated disc. A nagging injury he has been dealing with for nearly 10 years, since his college days. The surgery will take place in an undisclosed medical facility in Los Angeles.
The announcement has sparked a few questions inside and outside the locker room. The rumor-mill has him missing at least nine months. But he quickly dispelled this on his own podcast “Weekly Scraps” stating “It’s not going to be nine months. I don’t know why people keep saying that, who keeps spreading these lies, but it’s like the UFC has a mole that just tells stuff that they don’t know is actually true.”
The surgery will delay the title rematch with Petr Yan, prompting the former title holder to take to social media calling for Sterling to be stripped of the belt.
“Just strip this laughing stock from the title” Yan posted on Twitter.
All of this plays out after the most unusual way Sterling “won” the title. He because of Yan being disqualified due to an illegal knee to the head. There is speculation that the blow complicated the injury more, forcing Sterling to seek surgery at this time.
Recovery time from the surgery is expected to be less than nine months. Sterling says “The doctor did say they think the recovery time to start doing cardio and everything is three months but he would like to see me fight around months five or six.”
The main reason for the shorter time frame is the type of surgery he has decided to do, “We decided to go with the artificial disc replacement just to keep more of the flexibility of the neck and not put more stress with the fusion on the disc that is a level above or below.”
Even though there was no official match set, it didn’t stop Yan from complaining about it being delayed. “When? In 2023? Just admit you are terrified to enter the octagon with me again. Your a** is getting stripped p***y”. The odd thing is that Yan himself delayed the first match for an undisclosed injury and is now calling Sterling out.
It is not usual in the UFC to have more than six months between title bouts. So, putting the surgery aside, this fight probably wouldn’t even happen until sometime near the end of the year.
As for the odds, things look the same, but different than the first time around. Going into the first fight it was pretty close, Yan at -120 to -150, Sterling at -110 to +130. But after watching that fight, and now not even taking the surgery into account, the odds have most definitely moved. Yan opened higher at -260, while Sterling has dropped to +220.
Regardless of when Sterling recovers, this fight will happen. So let’s all hope he heals fast because it should be a good one.
