Newly crowned UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling teased that he wants a matchup with former UFC bantamweight and flyweight champion Henry Cejduo as his first title defense.
Sterling who became the first fighter in UFC history to win a title via disqualification over the weekend at UFC 259 in his fight with Petr Yan, after the Russian fighter landed an illegal knee towards the end of the fourth round, faced plenty of criticism from fighters and fans alike on social media for his victory. Amongst those were former 135-pound King Henry Cejudo, who was critical of Sterling's post-fight celebrations afterward initially but ultimately ended up apologizing to the new champ in a video posted on his Twitter where he discussed the fight with Yan at UFC 259.
Well, apparently the pair had a face-to-face meeting which Sterling's teammate and bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili captured on video and posted it to his Twitter account, which prompted a quote tweet from the champ calling for the fight with Cejudo next.
"All that talking stops when face to face! We can do this fight next instead! .@danawhite"
All that talking stops when face to face! We can do this fight next instead! .@danawhite https://t.co/ogISOnx5OD
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) March 8, 2021
The promotion seems set on running back the matchup between Yan and Sterling given the controversial finish of their fight on Saturday night as quickly as they can, but who knows what Cejudo potentially unretiring and wanting to fight Sterling could do to those plans.
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