"We can have our golden goose become the champ"- Aljamain Sterling has conspiracy theory for the UFC making his fight against Henry Cejudo
Aljamain Sterling believes the UFC wants Sean O’Malley to fight Henry Cejudo for the bantamweight world championship.
The bantamweight division has emerged as arguably the most intriguing in the UFC. The current undisputed champion has defended the title twice and is now waiting for his next challenger. The primary options are number-one contender Sean O’Malley and former two-division champion Henry Cejudo, who is returning from retirement after two years.
During a video on his YouTube channel, ‘Funk Master’ had this to say about what the UFC matchmaker’s thought process could be:
“Here’s what I think, and I don’t know if the UFC actually thinks like this. My theory is I get a harder matchup with Henry [Cejudo]. Maybe Henry beats me. You have the two-time division champ, and now he comes back, he wins the belt, and this is playing devil’s advocate… Let’s say Henry beats me. Then he gets the crazy payday against the golden goose [Sean] O’Malley, and O’Malley gets the easier fight of the two in terms of the stylistic matchup. Styles make fights.”
Sterling continued by saying:
“He gets to find Henry, who’s primarily a wrestler, not really a grappler in a sense of like he can finish you with submissions cause I don’t think he has any type of jiu-jitsu finishes whatsoever. He has a better chance of knocking him out versus a fight with me. So, I think stylistically, I think O’Malley has a better chance of becoming a UFC world champion fighting Henry Cejudo and not Aljamain Sterling. I think that’s the thought process. We can have our golden goose become the champ that we think he can be if we give him a more favorable matchup.”
Despite rumors of O’Malley possibly being next, the UFC seems to be leaning towards Cejudo. At least, that’s what Sterling has reported in the same YouTube video.
Watch Aljamain Sterling discuss his UFC theory below:
Aljamain Sterling claims UFC world title fight against Henry Cejudo is almost done
After defending the bantamweight title against T.J. Dillashaw in October, Aljamain Sterling revealed he wanted to take several months to recover. Speculation began about the bantamweight king returning in mid-2023, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. During the same video on his YouTube channel, Sterling had this to say about his next fight:
“I’m announcing that I am gonna fight Henry next. We are targeting March, so I will say Ali [Abdelaziz], brotha, it’s done, but it’s still not done until there is ink on the paper… It’s still kinda not done, but this is the fight that’s gonna happen next."
Cejudo last fought in May 2020 after defeating Dominick Cruz and then retiring as the UFC bantamweight champion. Now that he’s reportedly been cleared through USADA, ‘Triple C’ looks to reclaim his throne against Sterling, who continues to be underrated throughout his title reign.