UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling is not sold on Henry Cejudo’s comeback: “He ain’t GSP”
Current UFC 135lb champion Aljamain Sterling has an endless list of contenders when looking at the entire bantamweight division, but would fans or UFC staff consider Henry Cejudo to be at the top of that list? In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, Sterling broke down the Cejudo “situation” along with his current matchup with TJ Dillashaw.
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With all the contenders at 135lbs, why should Cejudo get the immediate title shot?
Former champ-champ at 125 & 135lbs, Henry Cejudo has been vocal about what he wants next in his MMA career. Having reentered the USADA testing pool in April of this year, fans and the UFC are wondering what Cejudo’s next move may be. Henry Cejudo has been very vocal in his efforts to get a high-level matchup with either 135 or 145lb champions, but he has also been chirping at other 135 contenders. With all the top ten matchups in the bantamweight division set, it will probably be exceedingly difficult for Cejudo to get a title shot against current champion Sterling.
With the matchup between Petr Yan and Sean O’Malley, along with Jose Aldo facing Merab Dvalishvili and Marlon Vera fighting Dominic Cruz this weekend, it seems unlikely that Cejudo will get what he wants for his return fight. Should Cejudo face the winner of any of those matchups and win, then nothing will hold the UFC or fans from demanding that he faces the winner of Sterling and Dillashaw. There are a lot of moving parts in this situation, so Cejudo probably shouldn’t put all his eggs in one basket and should campaign for any top ten contenders at 135 pounds to put himself in a position to challenge for the belt.
Sterling’s team talked about the potential matchup between the current champion and the former champ-champ Cejudo, but they are not sold on the idea that he is really coming back. They also compared this to Georges St-Pierre‘s comeback in 2017 and said that the former UFC welterweight champion who returned to an immediate shot at the middleweight championship against Michael Bisping after a four-year hiatus. Instead of that happening, Sterling suggested Cejudo fight someone like Dominick Cruz first.
Aljamain Sterling sat with MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani to talk about potential Cejudo matchup and more
In a recent interview, Aljamain Sterling went into detail on the 135-pound division, along with his current matchup with TJ Dillashaw and the possibility of facing Henry Cejudo.
Sterling was not holding any words back when it came to discussing both Dillashaw and Cejudo, when TJ Dillashaw’s name was mentioned, Sterling stated that: “the guy’s a cheating little weasel and he’s been doing it for years.” Sterling will face Dillashaw in a highly anticipated matchup at UFC 280, but the champion also has his eyes on Cejudo.
Aljamain Sterling could not help but get a few words in on how he feels about Cejudo’s comeback. When Helwani asked Sterling, “Is the winner [Sterling or Dillashaw] fighting Cejudo?” Sterling’s response showed how he truly feels about Henry Cejudo reentering the top of the division. The ‘Funk Master’ stated that, “Cejudo needs to get back in the pool and fight somebody, until then no one’s going to take that guy seriously.”
Sterling went into a bit more depth on the Cejudo come back saying, “He ain’t [Georges St-Pierre] GSP. He fought [Dominic] Cruz on short notice. Fight Cruz now. See what happens.” With all this said, fans and the UFC should keep their eyes on the 135-pound title fight in October along with the rest of the division, including Cejudo because as fans know far too well, anything can happen in the world of MMA.
