Aljamain Sterling retained his bantamweight title in an extremely close fight with Henry Cejudo, and we have no doubt a large number of MMA fans are going to be upset over how the judges saw that fight and scored it.
Sterling was awarded a split decision win over Cejudo with two judges giving “Funkmaster” 48-47 scores and a third giving “Triple C” the 47-48. The cards were identical going into the fifth round: all three judges had Sterling winning R1 and R3 while Cejudo had R2 and R5. In the end the champion did just enough in the fifth round to secure his belt, defending it for the third time successfully.
Following the fight, Sterling called “Suga” Sean O’Malley into the cage to set up his next fight, and things came pretty close to a brawl after Aljo’s BFF Merab Dvalishvili stole O’Malley’s leather jacket. The time it took to restore order may have saved us from a kneejerk decision from Cejudo to retire. He had taken his gloves off following the loss, but held back on definitely retiring when interviewed by Joe Rogan.
Cejudo certainly had nothing to be ashamed of with his performance. He lost to a much larger opponent by a single point on a single judges’ scorecard after three years off. The fans certainly appreciated his effort, and so did Twitter. Take a look at how everyone saw the hard fought main event from UFC 288.
Cejudo is in phenomenal shape. He’s been working with top-notch strength and conditioning coaches Matt Wiedemer and Stan Efferding. But he also has not fought in three years and he’s 36 years old. Let’s see. #UFC288
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) May 7, 2023
Love how Bruce Buffer first introduced Henry Cejudo as the 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in freestyle wrestling #UFC288
— Helen Yee (@HelenYeeSports) May 7, 2023
Cejudo takes Sterling down 90 seconds into the fight #UFC288
— Nolan King (@mma_kings) May 7, 2023
Aljamain Sterling gets Henry Cejudo’s back but there’s only 20 seconds left in Round 1 #UFC288
— Shakiel Mahjouri (@Shak_Fu) May 7, 2023
Beautiful work by both but gotta give the edge to Sterling. Very intense fight. #UFC288
— Hyon Ko (@KoreanJohn_) May 7, 2023
Gonna be tough for Cejudo to win this fight ! #UFC288
— Derek Brunson (@DerekBrunson) May 7, 2023
10-9 Cejudo
Cejudo’s ability to adjust in a fight is a sight to behold. Leading everything with his feints and legs now is working #UFC288
— Weasle (@ThaWeasle) May 7, 2023
Close, close round 2. Scores are going to go either place. I’ll go Aljo, but again, a Cejudo score is very defensible.
— Luke Thomas ️♂️ (@lthomasnews) May 7, 2023
Aljo always looks tired after a few rounds. Fight a pick em entering round 3 #UFC288
— Fight Ghost (@Fight_Ghost) May 7, 2023
Very close round, Cejudo using all his championship experience, 1-1. #UFC288
— Teddy Atlas (@TeddyAtlasReal) May 7, 2023
Cejudo is finally getting his timing on the feet. He’s a much more technical striker, but it’s smart for Sterling to finally get him back to the fence. Much better fight for him here.
— Anton Tabuena (@antontabuena) May 7, 2023
Aljo clearly having more success against the fence and should look to take the fight here more frequently. #ufc288
— Alan Jouban (@AlanJouban) May 7, 2023
High level grappling exchanges. The Olympian clearly has better wrestling from the open, and it’s much closer by the fence. Love it.
— Anton Tabuena (@antontabuena) May 7, 2023
Matt Serra tells Aljamain Sterling: “I don’t want you on all fours anymore” #UFC288
— Shakiel Mahjouri (@Shak_Fu) May 7, 2023
Did they really say “Grab your nuts and let them hang baby”?
— Anton Tabuena (@antontabuena) May 7, 2023
Ray Longo has the best commentary for his fighters: “Beat the shit out of this guy.”#UFC288
— Greg Rosenstein (@grosenstein) May 7, 2023
Cejudo’s lack of variety in his ranged options are hurting him and it’s giving Aljo a lot of time to work. Cejudo should be punishing Aljo on the fence because he getting him there constantly.
— Dan A. (@TypewritingDA) May 7, 2023
Everyone’s scorecards are all over the place and yet everyone seems so confident in their particular scoring…Myself included #UFC288
— Smashley (@SmashleySuplex) May 7, 2023
Cejudo’s corner tells him it’s either 2-2 or 3-1 Sterling and I agree with them.
39-37 Sterling on my card #UFC288
— Nolan King (@mma_kings) May 7, 2023
Mastermind stuff hahaha
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) May 7, 2023
Aljo is gonna watch this fight back and regret making it harder than it had to be… He literally has a 7 inch reach advantage… A jab wins this fight easily! #UFC288
— Walt Harris (@thebigticket205) May 7, 2023
Great tree top takedown from Cejudo.
— Luke Thomas ️♂️ (@lthomasnews) May 7, 2023
Oh that’s not good for aljo, could decide the fight tbh with how close these cards are gonna be
— Joanna Dangerfield (@joannadangerfd) May 7, 2023
As expected, the fans are booing Aljamain Sterling.
— Andreas Hale (@AndreasHale) May 7, 2023
Why are fans booing? Great fight (and right result).#UFC288
— Greg Rosenstein (@grosenstein) May 7, 2023
That’s a bad decision. Really think Cejudo was closer to 4-1 than 3-2 for Aljo. And I bet Aljo, bad bet.
Cejudo looked great off a 3 year layoff, he deserved to win
— Martian MMA (@UFO_UFC) May 7, 2023
Easiest money I’ve ever made. Not a scratch on Aljo! Congrats Funkmaster! Good little fighter is Henry but give it a rest with these agendas all the time. The guy is sub 20 fights in his career. His little feints an all ahaha omg please teach me mastermind lol. Done the splits…
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) May 7, 2023
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This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
