UFC 288: Aljamain Sterling pays rare respect to Henry Cejudo’s analytical prowess
In an unusual turn of events, current bantamweight king Aljamain Sterling shared words of praise for Henry Cejudo.
In a post uploaded to Twitter, Sterling acknowledged 'The Messenger's analytical prowess. 'Funk Master' said he expected Cejudo to be prepared for all the challenges that he might pose for him.
Sterling then went on to give a prediction for the fight and said he would finish Cejudo inside the first two rounds:
"Triple Whoopper isn’t an idiot. I know he’s done his homework and I know he sees the problems that he needs to solve. With that said I finish him in 2."
Triple Whoopper isn’t an idiot. I know he’s done his homework and I know he sees the problems that he needs to solve. With that said I finish him in 2. twitter.com/jlwavy/status/…
Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo will headline the the UFC 288 event that is scheduled to take place on May 6 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Sterling is currently riding a spectacular eight-fight win streak that includes victories over high-level fighters like Petr Yan, Cory Sandhagen, T.J. Dillashaw, Jimmie Rivera and Pedro Munhoz.
Cejudo, on the other hand, will be making his comeback after a three-year layoff. In his last UFC fight, 'Triple C' successfully defended the bantamweight title by defeating Dominick Cruz via second-round TKO at UFC 249.
It will be interesting to see whether Sterling will continue his dominant run in the UFC or if Cejudo manages to shake things up in the bantamweight division after such a long break.
Henry Cejudo's coach speaks about the training strategy for Aljamain Sterling fight
In a recent video uploaded to Henry Cejudo's channel, 'The Messenger's head MMA coach Santino DeFranco discussed the techniques they were drilling to prepare for the fight against Aljamain Sterling.
DeFranco mentioned Sterling's fondness for body triangles and said they were training to defend against it. The coach added that they were emphasizing on a more aggressive approach to the fight:
"We know [Aljamain Sterling] loves a body triangle, so we're going over that... And just making sure he's sharp in all the positions that he doesn't always finds himself in because we want him to be confident enough to grow and be offensive instead of taking a defensive approach to the fight," said Santino DeFranco.
You can check out Cejudo's coach Santino DeFranco's comments from the 8:15 mark below: