SAN ANTONIO – Cory Sandhagen isn’t sure why Henry Cejudo retired if he’s still chasing after a title.
Cejudo hung up his gloves after he retained his bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz in May 2020. Three years later, Cejudo will look to reclaim the belt he never lost when he challenges champion Aljamain Sterling in the UFC 288 headliner May 6.
While Sandhagen (15-4 MMA, 8-3 UFC) doesn’t see Cejudo’s re-entry to the division’s top directly affecting him, he’s not a fan of him jumping the line.
“I guess I’m OK with it,” Sandhagen told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s pre-fight news conference for UFC on ESPN 43. “I do think that you shouldn’t be able to pop out of retirement and then just fight for a belt. That seems a little bit lame to me. You shouldn’t have returned in the first place if that was the case. That’s my opinion on it. As long as I’m not the one competing against Cejudo for the next title shot, which I don’t feel like I am, I could (not) kind of care less.”
Sandhagen, who meets Marlon Vera (20-7-1 MMA, 14-6 UFC) in a pivotal bantamweight clash in Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 43 headliner, is on the fence when it comes to the winner of Sterling and Cejudo.
But Sandhagen sees how former Olympic gold medalist wrestler Cejudo (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) can neutralize Sterling’s (22-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) biggest strength.
“That’s actually a really interesting fight,” Sandhagen said. “You get two guys who are really good at wrestling, and usually what you get is a not-so-good kickboxing match, which could be what it is. But I also could see Cejudo using his takedowns just to nullify close rounds.
“I think that’ll probably be his path to victory: He’ll try to just score some takedowns – not really mess around with Aljamain too much on the floor, just nullify the striking that I feel like is probably going to be pretty close. It’s a tricky one. I have really no idea what Cejudo’s been up to except for making YouTube videos. It’ll be interesting to see.”
UFC on ESPN 43 takes place Saturday at AT&T Center in San Antonio. The main card airs on ESPN following prelims on ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 43.
