Aljamain Sterling has suggested Henry Cejudo potentially having an advantage ahead of their title fight at UFC 288.
Sterling defends his bantamweight title against the returning Cejudo in the main event of UFC 288 which takes place Saturday night in Newark, New Jersey.
For Cejudo, it will be his first fight since May 2020 when he defeated Dominick Cruz to defend the bantamweight title at the time before proceeding to retire.
As a result of his retirement, he has been out of the USADA drug testing pool since until announcing his intention to return to action.
That leads Sterling to ponder if the Olympian has enjoyed any unfair advantages leading up to their fight — without accusing him of cheating.
“I wouldn’t put it past Henry to have taken advantage of his three-year downtime and two years out of the testing pool,” Sterling told SI. “I don’t know if I can call it cheating–I don’t know if I can call it an advantage, either.
“He had a break. I’ve been in the trenches. I’ve got my advantages of being active, he’s got his advantages from being off. Nobody was waking him up at six or seven in the morning to test him. It’s hard to answer that one without people saying I’m making an excuse, but it would be naive not to consider it, that Henry would take advantage of an opportunity when he was no longer subjected to any of these protocols.”
Although Aljamain Sterling was careful with his words, it seems his implication is that Cejudo may have taken performance enhancing drugs during his time away from the pool.
It wouldn't be the first time a fighter was accused of it and it will certainly be interesting to see if Cejudo offers any response.
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