The title fight that headlined UFC 288 in Newark went all the way to a split decision 47-48 and 48-47 twice in favor of the reigning champion, although the audience in the arena clearly disagreed with the verdict.
The fighters spent most of the fight in the standing position, where Cejudo worked as the first number, however, according to statistics, Sterling surpassed the opponent in the number of strikes and accented blows. At the same time, the “Triple Champion” did not allow Sterling to take the back and retained control on the ground.
After the fight, Aljamain Sterling challenged Sean O’Malley, who entered the octagon and had a battle of looks with him. At the same time, O’Malley had a skirmish with the teammate of the champion, Merab Dvalishvili, who in the confusion tried to appropriate his jacket.
In the co-main event of the event, the contender for the UFC welterweight title was determined, which was Belal Muhammad, who defeated Gilbert Burns. At the end of five rounds, the judges by unanimous decision with a score of 50-45 and 49-46 twice gave the victory to the American, who occupied the center of the octagon for most of the fight, controlled the space and dominated the Brazilian in the stand.
In an interview after the fight, Belal Muhammad expressed his readiness to meet the winner of the title fight between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington, which has not yet been officially announced.
In the third most important event of the event, former UFC flyweight champion, Jessica Andrade, suffered a second early loss in a row, losing to Xiaonan Yang in the first round by technical knockout.
Among other results, we note the successful performances of Russian fighters Movsar Evloev and Ikram Aliskerov. Evloev won a unanimous decision against Brazilian UFC recruit Diego Lopez in the featherweight division, and Aliskerov made his bright debut under the banner of the strongest league in the world, knocking out American Phil Howes in the first round.
Early victories were recorded by Matt Frevola, Kennedy Nzechukwu, Parker Porter and Claudio Ribeiro.
All UFC 288 results.