Fight fans can’t contain excitement as UFC announces Henry Cejudo vs. Aljamain Sterling as the main event of UFC 288
On May 6 in Newark, New Jersey, at UFC 288, Aljamain Sterling will defend his bantamweight championship against former champion Henry Cejudo. News of the advancement was made public on Friday. After three years of inactivity, Cejudo is coming out of retirement to compete again.
Both men had previously committed to the fight in principle, but there was considerable apprehension. It was unusual for the UFC to promote UFC 288 on Tuesday without highlighting the main event. Social media posts from Sterling claimed Cejudo was causing a delay, and he instead promoted a bout with rising star Sean O’Malley. After much back and forth, everything was ironed out by Friday’s announcement.
Cejudo is a former UFC bantamweight and flyweight champion as well as an Olympic wrestling gold winner.
Sterling (22-3) has won eight consecutive bouts and is coming off a second-round TKO victory against former champion TJ Dillashaw at UFC 280 in October. The native of Long Island, New York has successfully defended his title twice. At UFC 259 in March 2021, Sterling, 33, defeated Petr Yan via disqualification (illegal knee) and subsequently by split decision in a rematch.
Cejudo (16-2) has not competed since defending his championship against former champion Dominick Cruz by second-round TKO at UFC 249 in May 2020. After that fight, the Arizona resident announced his retirement, but he formally returned in early 2022 by re-entering the USADA drug-testing pool. Cejudo, 36, has won six consecutive matches, and in 2018 he broke Demetrious Johnson’s UFC record of 11 consecutive title defences by capturing the UFC flyweight championship.
Needles to say, fight fans were thrilled by the news and couldn’t contain their excitement on Twitter. One fan wrote:
“This is gonna be pure comedy gold, especially with these 2 clowns AND that New Jersey crowd. Haha. This is such a perfect fight for Jersey.”
Another fan joked:
“This a warm up fight for triple c the real challenge is when he fights Jon jones”
Another fan wrote:
“These guys headlining a card in New Jersey is the best booking decision I’ve seen in a while. lol”
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