It seems that Henry Cejudo will be diving right into a title shot as he returns to the UFC
The current bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling, dropped some news on us this morning via his YouTube channel. He and Henry Cejudo are targeted to fight on May 6th. Henry Cejudo vacated the bantamweight title after defeating Dominic Cruz in what was his first and only title defense in the division. That was back in May of 2020. The former champ flirted with the idea of coming back to the UFC and officially re-entered the USADA testing pool in April of last year; now, it’s well past the six months of testing required by the anti-doping agency, so we were just waiting for a name, and a name we’ve got.
Despite winning the UFC’s bantamweight title in a not-so-impressive manner, Aljo has since proved doubters wrong with wins over Petr Yan in their rematch, and T.J. Dillashaw. Sterling has leaned on his wrestling chops to keep the belt around his waist. It’ll be interesting to see if he enters this fight with the same gameplan.
‘Triple C’ has won a lot of gold throughout his lifetime, and he’s always eager to remind everyone. His accolades include a UFC bantamweight title, UFC flyweight title, and an Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling. So, on paper, Cejudo has the wrestling advantage. However, Sterling is always improving, and this time off could have a negative effect on the former champ.
This fight is not yet official, but it’s believed that contracts will be sent out and signed shortly. UFC 288 will take place on May 6, location TBD. There’s not a lot of information out on this card yet. But, if things pan out, we’ll see Henry Cejudo try and win back the title that he never lost against a surging Aljamain Sterling. Sounds like a banger of a card already.