UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain can add a huge name to his detail sheet in the event that he can crush a returning Henry Cejudo at UFC 288. Cejudo enters the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday three years eliminated from his unique retirement.
Sterling is in an uncommon circumstance as champion. “Funk Expert” has come out on top for his last three championship battles yet doesn’t appear to be completely embraced or regarded as a champion. This is logical because of incidental conditions eclipsing his prosperity: from a preclusion win against Petr Yan to T.J. Dillashaw entering their battle with a non-useful shoulder. Cejudo is an Olympic gold medalist and one of just four concurrent two-division champions in UFC history – – simply the kind of marquee win that can solidify Sterling’s heritage. Cejudo reported his retirement and emptied the bantamweight title subsequent to beating Dominick Cruz in May 2020.
UFC 288 likewise includes a welterweight crash with serious title suggestions. Belal Muhammad and Gilbert Consumes ventured under troublesome conditions to finish up the compensation per-view card after Charles Oliveira versus Beneil Dariush was deferred. Muhammad was fasting for Ramadan when he got the call; in the mean time, Consumes was fourteen days eliminated from beating Jorge Masvidal in the co-headliner of UFC 287. The champ of this five-round non-title battle has been guaranteed a UFC welterweight title shot, however not really before Colby Covington.
Previous two-division champion Henry Cejudo gets back from a three-year retirement on Saturday when he faces bantamweight champion Aljamain Real in the headliner of UFC 288. The battle is an opportunity for Cejudo to come out on top for back the championship he surrendered when he hung up his gloves, and furthermore a chance for Real to delete any uncertainty concerning his place on the 135-pound division.
Likewise with any UFC pay-per-view, UFC 288 is certainly not a one-battle card. The co-headliner is a title eliminator in the welterweight division, with Gilbert Consumes making a speedy return after his UFC 287 triumph to confront Belal Muhammad. The victor would be in line for a shot at the welterweight title after the expected session between champion Leon Edwards and double cross title challenger Colby Covington.
“It’s a mind-blowing narrative and perhaps the tale of Belal’s life as well,” Consumes let CBS Sports know this week. “I’m somewhat becoming acclimated to not getting the simple way. It’s exactly who I’m. On the off chance that I really want to work somewhat more earnestly, what will be will be. I don’t get disappointed any longer and I’m not a grumbler. I’m a laborer. When they said I can’t make it happen, rather than asking, ‘Why not, why him? I got out, ‘Whatever do I need to do?’ That is the way I approach it.”
“‘For what reason am I not getting this? For what reason am I not having my chance? For what reason would they say they are doing this to me? Do they disdain me?…’ Brother, such is reality,” Muhammad told CBS Sports. “No one will hand you anything. I knew that right from when I got to the UFC. Anything that I needed, I must paw my method for snatching it and get it. Knowing, even with this battle here, it’s still me tearing to get it and get it. In the wake of winning this to get to the title that I realize I will get, it’s about to make this load of additional stuff, this multitude of additional obstacles that I needed to go over, it will make that a lot better and that greatly improved to have that gold wrapped around my waist.”
