Daniel Cormier believes Henry Cejudo should forget about fighting Alexander Volkanovski.
Cejudo made his return to action for the first time in three years when he suffered a split decision defeat to Aljamain Sterling in their bantamweight title fight at UFC 288 last month.
It was a competitive and extremely close contest, but in the end, the bigger and lengthier Sterling did just about enough to edge the fight over five rounds.
Of course, Cejudo's plans were to become a two-time bantamweight champion and then go on to challenge Volkanovski for his featherweight title in an attempt to become the UFC's first-ever three-weight champion.
However, those plans were derailed once Sterling beat him — but Cejudo is not giving up just yet.
With Sterling now set to defend his bantamweight title against Sean O'Malley at UFC 292 on Aug. 19 in Boston, Cejudo has been campaigning to fight Merab Dvalishvili on the same card.
However, recent rumblings of Cejudo fighting Marlon Vera on that card are now occurring and Cormier pretty much seemed to confirm them.
“Henry Cejudo is gonna fight in Boston in August against Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel (via MMA Junkie). “Here’s the thing that’s weird for me: He was asking for another title fight because he thought maybe Aljamin Sterling, who Dana bought a Lamborghini for, was not gonna fight against Sean O’Malley.
“Well, they’re fighting.”
Even if Cejudo were to beat Vera and get another shot at the bantamweight title in the future, Cormier believes the Olympian's focus should remain at 135 pounds and not on Volkanovski — especially given how size played a factor in his defeat to Sterling.
“Henry is putting himself in a really good position to try to have an opportunity to become a champion again,” Cormier explained. “What the fight with Aljo (Sterling) taught me was that Henry Cejudo should not be talking about Alexander Volkanovski.
“He’s too small because Aljo’s length caused him some issues, and Volkanovski is an absolute monster and probably the best fighter in the world pound-for-pound.”
It's hard to argue with that.
Cejudo is already undersized for bantamweight and if he had trouble against Sterling, he'll definitely struggle a lot more against the bigger and bulkier Volkanovski who was able to give Islam Makhachev plenty of problems.
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