Sterling-Cejudo title fight to headline UFC 288

The bantamweight title fight between Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo is official at last.

Sterling will defend his belt against former champion Cejudo in the UFC 288 main event on May 6 in Newark, New Jersey, the promotion announced Friday night.

Cejudo will be coming back to mixed martial arts after retiring for three years. He walked away from the UFC as the reigning bantamweight champion in May 2020 following a successful title defense against ex-champ Dominick Cruz. Cejudo is also a former flyweight titleholder and one of four simultaneous two-division champs in UFC history.

The matchup between Sterling and Cejudo had seemingly been in the works for months, but there was a delay in finalizing it because the champion was dealing with an injury. Sterling said in early February that he would be fighting Cejudo in May. However, earlier this week, Sterling and No. 1-ranked bantamweight contender Sean O’Malley teased on Twitter that O’Malley could step in and be the next challenger instead.

Sterling is coming off his second successful title defense, a second-round TKO victory over former two-time champion TJ Dillashaw at UFC 280 last October. “Funk Master” claimed the belt with a controversial disqualification win over Petr Yan in 2021 and then defended it for the first time in a rematch with Yan by split decision.

Cejudo enters the fight riding a six-fight winning streak. He won the vacant bantamweight title in 2019 and then defended it once against Cruz. Cejudo first captured UFC gold at 125 pounds, dethroning Demetrious Johnson in 2018. Cejudo defended his strap in that division once, too, knocking out Dillashaw in the first round.

Also added to UFC 288 are a strawweight bout between Jessica Andrade and Yan Xiaonan; Bryce Mitchell versus Jonathan Pearce at featherweight; and Kron Gracie’s return fight against Charles Jourdain, UFC president Dana White announced Friday.

A lightweight bout between former champ Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush will co-headline the pay-per-view event, which marks the first card in Newark since August 2019.

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