UFC 288 Aftermath: Has Aljamain Sterling Finally Earned His Respect?

UFC 288 featured a changing of the bantamweight guard when Aljamain Sterling defeated Henry Cejudo via split decision in a closely contested bout. While it wasn’t the most exciting fight, there were some things we learned, starting with Cejudo showing that he’s still an elite wrestler and Sterling proving that he can grapple with an Olympic gold medalist. Today is Aftermath day, so let us break down the nuts and bolts.

Cejudo vs. Father Time

As the adage goes: “Father Time is undefeated,” and after Cejudo decided to spot Father Time three of his best years, the consequences reared their head. The Cejudo we saw at UFC 288 was a product of that. After retiring off his win over Dominick Cruz at UFC 249, Cejudo gave up the remainder of his prime, then returned at the ripe old age of 36 to face a younger champion. Cejudo struggled with the speed of Sterling, as well as his size and length.

Despite being a senior citizen of the bantamweight division, Cejudo had a lifetime of competition behind him, and that muscle memory kicked into high gear and kept him in this fight. Despite being the smaller fighter by a healthy margin, Cejudo was quite strong in the clinch and took Sterling down from there. Now, Sterling’s takedown defense isn’t historically great, but Cejudo managed to get the fight to the ground.

If you read the UFC 288 Beforemath, you know that the inside trip from the clinch was something we identified for Cejudo to utilize against Sterling. The champ was susceptible to the sweep from the clinch in the first Petr Yan fight and Cejudo has utilized the inside trip all his career.

Lo and behold, Cejudo found the inside trip in the third round and that will be the topic of our first figure that we see above. (1) Aljamain Sterling stuffed a takedown of Cejudo’s and stayed in the clinch. Cejudo would (2) reap his leg around the inside of Sterling’s, creating a leverage point for him to trip the champ over. He will turn Sterling towards that leg, over the trip point and kick out his leg for (3) the takedown.

Unfortunately for Cejudo, Sterling made the adjustment to the inside trip and would work to keep his leg from being in that position again in the fight. Where Cejudo struggled was when he got to the ground, keeping Sterling there and landing any significant damage. His takedowns were fantastic, he was strong in the clinch, but damage in the clinch and on the ground was non-existent, which really hurt Cejudo in this fight. Cejudo has always been like this, however. He’s struggled at times against fighters who were a threat to sweep him or scramble up and out. He puts a big emphasis on control over everything else and it leads him to lose rounds.

This tactic won Cejudo the flyweight title against Demetrious Johnson but cost him against Sterling. Against Johnson, he was able to hold control for longer times and hit three opportunistic takedowns to win a razor-close fight. Sterling wrestled back and looked for reversals, at which he had success and managed to score back some of those takedowns. At the end of the day, Cejudo may have lived out the fairy-tale portion of his long career. He sat by waiting for a payday that never came, and lost precious years in a sport where young men are the top of the heap and the grizzled veterans are the ones to make the next generation of fighters known to the masses. Cejudo may never fight for a third belt, but that’s okay. It could have saved him some real trauma after what we saw last night.

Sterling: One Fight, One Win

In Beforemath we said that both Cejudo and Sterling had one job coming into a fight: beat the man in front of you. That’s the job of every fighter in any reputable organization. Sterling hasn’t had many fights after his title reign that fans can respect. Cejudo will, sadly, not be one either, but fans will look at Sterling’s record in 10 years and think to themselves that his resume is quite impressive. Sterling has extended his title reign and now gets a fight with Sean O’Malley, his highest profile match by far.

Sterling showed great resolve against an opponent who was better than him with the hands and better than him on the wrestling mat. On paper, he should have lost this fight, but the factors that played into Sterling’s hands were utilized to perfection. When looking at the fight, we need to ask ourselves: In which phases is Sterling is better than Cejudo? What are his advantages?

The big advantage for Sterling was the length. He had much greater reach than Cejudo not only with the arms, but the legs as well. In fact, Sterling’s kicks were his best weapon. Cejudo had to stand tall against Sterling. His karate stance really plays well into that, but Cejudo still had to punch up which shortened his reach even further. Sterling punched down and that took away from his reach also, but only for his arms. The legs are almost always the longest weapon a fighter has, and Sterling and his team knew this. All fight, Sterling landed kicks and kept Cejudo on the end of his kicks, scoring points.

Sterling also needed to deal with the wrestling of Cejudo. During the fight, he did a good job of thwarting Cejudo’s attempts and using the failed attempts for his own shots. This allowed Sterling to keep Cejudo from laying some ground-and-pound down and made Cejudo more hesitant on the ground. When Sterling found himself taken down, he fought to get to the fence, to reverse and to keep Cejudo from advancing. Our next figure will feature a peek out from Sterling.

(1) Cejudo stayed on the front headlock all night when he got Sterling to the ground. To escape, Sterling would peek out. He will have to post his leg out for leverage and post his right hand on the ground. (2) Next, Sterling would have to elevate Cejudo. To do that, he will raise his arm and look behind his shoulder which raises Cejudo’s base. (3) Once elevated, Sterling would push his head trough, (4) forcing Cejudo behind him.

For Sterling, turning away Cejudo adds legitimacy to his reign as champion, one that doesn’t get as much respect as it deserves. Sterling is a confusing fighter. He’s good in weird spots that make life hell for any fighter. He should beat O’Malley, but O’Malley has shown that he wins fights many don’t think he will. O’Malley will not be a walk in the park. And if he is, maybe then Sterling will get the respect he deserves as a champion.