Ariel Helwani talked UFC Perth next year with possible matchups including Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo.
Multiple-time MMA journalist of the year Ariel Helwani recently spoke on the possibility for Aljamain Sterling vs Henry Cejudo at UFC 280. He also mentioned a few other potential matchups including Marlon Vera vs Sean O’Malley, Marat Magomedov vs Cory Sandhagen and Petr Yan vs Song Ye Dong.
He spoke on the UFC Perth fight card during a segment of his ‘The MMA Hour” show.
He said,
“Aljamain Sterling vs Henry Cejudo. That’s what I’m hearing. I can tell you now, Henry is for real.”
Helwani also mentioned that Dana White would not bring up Henry Cejudo without Cejudo being in the mix and was willing to go with the presumption that Triple C was involved.
Helwani further added that he was not sure if this is because they think Cejudo can possibly dethrone Sterling. However, he did bring up some interesting matchups for UFC Perth.
“You do Chito Sugar 2, big time fight card. And you do Marat and Cory Sandhagen and by the way you go one step down and do Yan and Song Ye Dong. There it is, there’s the bantamweight division.”
Helwani explained further that he believes Cejudo will accept the fight.
Ariel Helwani says he is hearing what the UFC wants is Sterling/Cejudo in Perth.#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/fWI3ITlNAC
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) October 25, 2022
What did Ariel Helwani think of Islam Makhachev vs Alexander Volkanovski?
Helwani has been very open about his speculations on how the brewing rivalry between Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski is going to play out. In another interview he said,
“One could argue that his [Islam Makhachev] toughest fight is going to happen next. It is going to be Alexander Volkanofski. Now is Alex too small, we’ll find out but this feels like a big deal.”
Helwani praised Volkanovski for doing everything right such as making weight and being at UFC 280 ready to go. If either Oliveira or Makhachev could not compete, Volkanovski would have stepped in. He also mentioned that building the hype for Makhachhev vs Volkanovski by having them face off in the cage was a smart move on part of DC.
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