Title Fight Set; 1 Fight Canceled

The
Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to New Jersey with its
latest pay-per-view offering.

UFC
288 is headlined by a bantamweight title fight between champion
Aljamain
Sterling and former titleholder Henry
Cejudo. Both men successfully made weight, making the
five-round fight official for Saturday. However, not all fighters
were as professional as the fight between Rafael Estevam vs.
Zhalgas
Zhumagulov was canceled after Estevam had weight issues.
Additionally, Joseph
Holmes came in 3 pounds overweight for his middleweight fight
against Claudio
Ribeiro and will be fined a percentage of his purse.

“Funk Master” will be looking to make his third defense of the
bantamweight title. Sterling won the belt after Petr Yan was
disqualified for an illegal knee in 2021 but then defeated Yan via
split decision last year. Sterling (22-3) then followed up that
impressive win with a quick TKO over an injured T.J.
Dillashaw. Now he’ll get to test himself against the division’s
former king. Sterling stepped on the scale at 134 pounds.

This marks a comeback for Cejudo (16-2), who retired after
defending his bantamweight title by defeating Dominick
Cruz. Cejudo simultaneously held both the bantamweight and
flyweight championships in the UFC and holds key wins over
Dillashaw, Demetrious
Johnson, Sergio
Pettis and Marlon
Moraes. “The Messenger” officially weighed 135 pounds on the
dot for his first fight since May 2020.

UFC 288 prelims begin at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT on UFC Fight Pass and
ESPN+. Action then continues on ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT before
switching to ESPN+ pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.