Former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is expected to challenge Henry Cejudo for his UFC bantamweight title at UFC 250 later this year.
Henry Cejudo is the reigning UFC bantamweight champion and is expected to make his 1st title defence against Jose Aldo at UFC 250 in May 9, 2020. The matchup was criticized by fans and fellow fighters, seeing as Aldo has only had 1 fight in the UFC bantamweight division, which he lost.
Highly ranked bantamweight contender Aljamain Sterling believes that Jose Aldo is being “milked for every last dollar” with this fight. UFC president Dana White refutes the criticism and praised the booking, stating that he believes Aldo was “robbed” by the judges in his UFC bantamweight debut against Marlon Moraes at UFC 245 in December of last year.
For Aldo, the former featherweight champion is just focusing on the opportunity to once again become a champion of the world. He recently talked to MMA Fighting about his upcoming fight against Henry Cejudo at UFC 250, detailing the changes he has had to make in his training due to the outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus:
“I’ll separate a group of athletes, no more than five fighters that have been in quarantine as well, and I know they don’t have it, so they can train with me,” Jose Aldo said. “I’ve proven I don’t have it [by staying at home for two weeks]. If they don’t have it either, we can train and have contact. I’ll train exclusively with that group.
“We’re all isolated. We’re in quarantine, so, when it’s over, we’ll take all the precaution needed and be able to train jiu-jitsu and spar. We’ll be able to do out normal training. The gym is closed, so we’ll open it just for us and train without risking getting contaminated or contaminating others.”
Even with having to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, Aldo remains confident that he can still beat Henry Cejudo on the worst of days. He says that all he needs is a single week of training to take the belt from Cejudo:
“F***, I only need a week of training to beat Cejudo,” Aldo said. “I’m more worried about making weight than fighting him. I can be off camp, on vacation, but if you put me in the Octagon with him, I beat him with an eye closed. So, for me, it’s not about sparring, if I only have a month or a week to train, I beat him even if I’m not training. The only problem is the weight, so that’s why I’m eating well. I’m cool about the fight though, don’t worry about it.”
The reason behind his confidence is simple. Jose Aldo believes that his skillset is better than Cejudo’s in all aspects of the game. He says that he can beat Cejudo “wherever the fight goes.”:
“I beat him wherever the fights goes. Easy,” Aldo said. “I’ll knock him out fast, no doubt about it. It won’t go five rounds, brother. It won’t. No doubt. If he tries to take me down, he won’t succeed because I’ve fought better wrestlers than him. I respect his history in the Olympics, he was an Olympic champion, congratulations, hats off to him, but it’s a whole other sport. It’s completely different. He won the Olympics at 55kg (121.25 pounds) and it’s completely different from MMA.
“I’m not worried about it. I have way more jiu-jitsu than him. If he takes me to the ground, I’ll submit him even if I’m not training for a year, and if we stay on the feet, I’ll knock him out. Don’t worry, wherever the fight goes I’ll knock him out.”
Jose Aldo made his bantamweight debut in his last fight against Marlon Moraes at UFC 245. He lost the fight against the No. 1 ranked Moraes via close split-decision.
Meanwhile, Henry Cejudo has been on a good run with impressive performances in his last 5 UFC fights. He dethroned the longest reigning flyweight champion in UFC history in Demetrious Johnson at UFC 227, back in August of 2018.
Cejudo went on to make his 1st title defence against the former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw at UFC Fight Night 143 in January of last year.
Following his win over Dillashaw, who was the bantamweight champion at the time, Cejudo moved up to the bantamweight division after Dillashaw failed the pre and post-fight drug tests for EPO.
As a result of his drug test failures, Dillashaw was forced to vacate his UFC bantamweight title. Cejudo faced Marlon Moraes for the vacant bantamweight title at UFC 238, beating the Brazilian fighter via TKO in the 3rd round.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 27th March, 2020.
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