If Henry Cejudo does end up retiring, Aljamain Sterling is pretty confident he will be fighting for the bantamweight title next.
Following his TKO win over Dominick Cruz at UFC 249 earlier this month, Cejudo shocked many by announcing that he was going to retire. Although some remain skeptical, it does appear that Cejudo is serious about it.
And as far as Sterling knows, he believes the UFC will have one final conversation with the current champion before moving on to crown a new one.
“As far as what I can probably reveal, I believe the UFC is gonna have one last conversation with Cejudo just to make sure he’s definitive on retiring and then move on from there,” Sterling told MMA Fighting. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen with Petr Yan, because I think he’s in Thailand right now. So I don’t know how the whole thing with the visa issues.
“Obviously, Dana White said he would like to crown a new champion relatively soon. That could be UFC 250, [or] UFC 251. We don’t know yet. But it all depends on how everything opens up with the economy in the world again, and from there, the UFC will better assess the landscape and make their decisions based on that.”
Sterling Believes He Has Best Claim
UFC president Dana White previously claimed that a fight for the vacant title would likely include Petr Yan and another top contender.
Although Sterling has been slated for a fight with another top contender in Cory Sandhagen, he remains confident he will get the call. After all, he believes he has a better claim than anyone given his current four-fight winning streak.
“I’m at a 7.5 [or] 8 right now on a scale from 1-10,” Sterling said when asked to rate his chances. “I feel pretty good about it. If not, I fight Cory Sandhagen, beat him up, hopefully get the finish, and I can’t be denied after that. He beat Assuncao, John Lineker, and arguably, I think he has a better resume than Petr Yan.
“… I’m still focused on Cory Sandhagen. He’s the guy I’m still studying. If we have to make some slight adjustments, if it’s for Petr Yan, we’ll see what happens. Hopefully they can get him into the country and see if we can make this thing go down. If not, we’ll just wait and see what the UFC wants to do.”
Sterling’s recent win streak includes victories over Brett Johns, Cody Stamann, Jimmie Rivera and Pedro Munhoz.
Do you think Sterling should fight Yan for the vacant title?