Aljamain Sterling didn’t hold back on Henry Cejudo after his withdrawal from UFC 292.
The UFC bantamweight champion took a shot at his former rival, as he found Cejudo’s criticism towards him hypocritical, given that Cejudo recently pulled out from a fight against Marlon Vera set to go down on the Aug. 19 UFC pay-per-view in Boston – the same card Sterling headlines against Sean O’Malley.
Cejudo previously criticized Sterling’s unsure stance on a potential return for the Aug. 19 date. Sterling had concerns about not having the proper time to heal up and return to defend his title against O’Malley at UFC 292, given that he had fought and beat Cejudo at UFC 288 in May. Cejudo made light of the quick turnaround and offered to fight O’Malley for an interim belt.
“Henry Cejudo is out of this fight,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “‘The savage, remember that? The savage? Texting Dana (White) saying, ‘If that little p*ssy doesn’t want to fight, I’ll take the fight?’ Isn’t it funny how the roles are reversed now, and this ‘little savage’ is no longer a savage? Very interesting.
“For me, I call that being a dirty little weasel. You try to disparage my name in front of the fans and make it seem like I don’t want to fight, whatever, ‘The fight wasn’t that bad of a fight, so you should be able to turn around.’ Guys, I’m telling you from experience, from a championship experience, defending multiple times… it’s very, very different getting ready for 25 minutes versus 15 minutes.”
Sterling believes Cejudo made himself look bad in the MMA community for his comments and then contrasting actions.
“Henry wanted to be this big, bad tough guy and lie to the fans and make it seem like he was in it to win it, yay! But now look, instead, you look like an assclown trying to pretend you’re something that you’re not,” Sterling said. “You’re human, bro. I’m human. I at least disclosed upfront because I didn’t want to rob the fans of their hard-earned money, because I wanted to check out my injuries, and I fought you with my injuries prior to coming into the octagon! So who is really the savage? Who is really built like that? Because clearly, my man, it ain’t you, respectfully.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 292.
