Henry Cejudo is eyeing an interim bantamweight title fight against Sean O’Malley. Cejudo recently suggested that bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling plans to hold up the division until mid-2023 and should be cast on the sidelines.
‘Triple C’ also dismissed Sterling’s latest victory over T.J. Dillashaw. ‘Funk Master’ earned a second-round TKO win over Dillashaw after the former champ dislocated his shoulder, courtesy of a Sterling takedown, in the first round.
Sean O’Malley also earned a controversial split-decision win over Petr Yan on the same card. Cejudo believes that he should fight O’Malley for the interim belt as ‘Sugar’s win over Yan was far from convincing. ‘Triple C’ said all this in an interview with The Schmo:
“I think we exit out Aljemix [Aljamain]. He’s talking about taking a break till mid-June or something. He beat a dude that was handicapped. Talk about hate crime on a handicapped guy. You know he beat a damn gimp. But I think if the UFC and Sean [O’Malley], they wanna do it, why don’t we do an interim? Nobody believes that Sean beat Petr Yan. I think that would be the best thing for the division to move along.”
Watch Henry Cejudo’s comments at the 1:31 mark in the video below:
Aljamain Sterling thinks Sean O’Malley is a bigger fight than Henry Cejudo
Dana White recently dropped Henry Cejudo’s name out of the blue while discussing potential opponents for Aljamain Sterling. Later rumors even suggested that ‘Funk Master’ is likely to defend his strap against Cejudo at UFC 284 in Perth.
However, Sterling has confirmed that he is not returning to the UFC 284 card scheduled for february next year. The UFC bantamweight champ, in fact, has no plans of returning before mid-2023.
Even then, Henry Cejudo is not Sterling’s first preference as an opponent. While ‘Aljo’ is looking for the biggest fight possible at this point, he doesn’t believe Cejudo is it. The 33-year-old considers Sean O’Malley and even Marlon Vera bigger opponents than ‘Triple C’. He recently told MMA Junkie’s Nolan King:
“People would be more excited to see me fight ‘Chito’ [Marlon Vera] over Cejudo… As a whole, Sean [O’Malley] just draws better than Cejudo. He [Cejudo] hasn’t fought in almost three years. I’m only pointing out the negatives.”
Sterling went on to say that if a fight against Cejudo materializes, it’ll only be exciting to the true MMA fans:
“Outside of his [Cejudo’s] credentials, for a die-hard, I’d be excited about that fight. But other than that, in terms of financial, I want the biggest fight which is typically the fight the fans want to see the most. I feel it’s the Sean O’Malley fight, but again, if I’m wrong, I’m wrong.”
Watch Aljamain Sterling’s comments at the 15:25 mark in the video below: