Earlier this month, fans witnessed a massive shakeup in the UFC’s bantamweight division. With Sean O’Malley defeating Aljamain Sterling, the 135lb division was blown wide open. As such, many including Henry Cejudo have wondered as to what happens next.
Taking to his YouTube channel, Cejudo presented an entire breakdown of the division. Here, Cejudo spoke about who Sean should fight next and who all are the viable contenders for the title. However, among them, Henry did not include Aljamain Sterling, who was the former champ and hailed as the ‘bantamweight GOAT’.
According to Cejudo, despite Aljamain’s achievements, the UFC does not care about him. “They (the UFC) don’t care about Aljamain Sterling, they really don’t. This isn’t a sting at you Aljamain, I just don’t think the UFC saw you as a marketing tool. You got wins over great competitors but there’s something that was missing with you”. Further, Cejudo adds that the UFC would not be considering giving Sterling the rematch due to the way he was finished by O’Malley.
Whilst Cejudo insists that it was probably an early stoppage, O’Malley would likely have emerged the winner either way. With that said, it would leave Merab Dvalishvili to be the one to contend for the title next. However, the Georgian has time and again given up opportunities to try and accommodate Sterling’s plans. As such, Henry believes that he should be getting the call to fight O’Malley next.
Fans believe Henry Cejudo is desperate to fight Sean O’Malley
After making a case for himself, Cejudo went on to state why others like Marlon Vera and Cory Sandhagen would be a bad option for O’Malley. According to Henry, Marlon is a very determined fighter and would be a tough test for O’Malley. Moreover, should Vera win, he would be 2-0 over Sean in the UFC, meaning that there would be no chance of an immediate rematch.
As for Henry himself, the Olympic gold medallist states that if they fought, he would give O’Malley the option for a rematch. Further, the double champ also believes that him against The Sugar Show would make for an exciting matchup. Not only that, it would also give the UFC another fight to hype up and market. As per one of Henry’s sources at ESPN, UFC 292 only did 300,000-350,000 buys.
With that said, Cejudo believes a potential fight between him and O’Malley could easily garner more hype and attention. Here, he also backs himself up by saying that he managed to get the best of him in a backstage confrontation. Following UFC 276, Cejudo interrupted O’Malley’s interview, letting him know that he was available to fight if needed. Whilst a fight between the two did not pan out, Cejudo went on to fight Sterling instead.
Recently, Cejudo was scheduled to take on Chito Vera at UFC 292 but withdrew due to a shoulder injury. As such, many suspected that the 36-year-old would somehow miraculously recover after the event. Just as many predicted, Cejudo is calling for a fight against O’Malley and seems to be in perfect fighting shape. With many catching on to Cejudo’s desperate ploy at wanting to fight O’Malley, will the UFC sanction the fight? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.