Trainer: Aljamine Sterling To thank Henry Cejudo, UFC 288 sold 700,000 PPV buys; Sterling responds

While Henry Cejudo’s trainer is making some big claims about UFC 288, champion Almaine Sterling disagrees.

Cejudo challenged Sterling for the bantamweight title in the main event of UFC 288. The fight was a good one, with Sterling winning a contested split decision to retain his title, and afterward, the champion celebrated his record victory, saying he helped the MMA world “shut down” Cejudo and made Cejudo’s trainer Eric Albarracin and the rest of Cejudo’s team act “like assholes and clowns” after the tension built toward the fight. Advised to prevent. Well, on Wednesday, Albarracin fired back.

“He calls us, we’re ass-clowns, we’re bullies, because I piss him off,” Albarracin said. MMA Hour. “Two things, it’s not a pickle. Two, that UFC Countdown To promote the fight and to tell you the truth, they edited it, because I was saying it in Portuguese. It’s, ‘Uh wai morer,’ you know how they say that in soccer? You’re not dying in a soccer game, but they say it and now they say it in MMA. Our trainers in Brazil with the pitbull brothers, when we throw body shots, they say, ‘Bota pra mizar sangu,’ which means ‘piss blood him,’ which means hit the body hard.

But he asked me, ‘What does it mean in English?’ And I did a little translation to the side. It wasn’t in the video, it was in the edit and they threw it away.

“But we’re donkey clowns? With Merab O’Malley wearing Michael Jackson Thriller Jacket, jumping on the cage, getting a genius fifth round and acting like he won the world title? come on Are we donkey clowns? You got Ray Longo, he can say “Aljo, look at that mother*****. Punch a hole in his chest!’ He can say that but we can’t say, ‘piss blood to him?’

“And then you’re cursing my Long Islanders? I’m from New York. Do you know why they are scolding you? Because they thought you lost! That’s why they’re booing you. And now you’re trying to profit from fear? are you serious Do you know how many pay-per-views they got? Seven hundred thousand. He should thank us. He has never gotten more than 200,000 on a pay-per-view. It was 700,000, double what he got.

Sterling’s team declined to comment when asked about Albarracin’s claims, while the champion himself appears to be denying it. After the interview, Sterling tweeted at Albarracin that he doesn’t expect to clear 250,000 pay-per-view buys for UFC 288.

“I was told yesterday we were lucky to break 250k PPV buys and you’re lying you know for sure we did 700,000 buys?! Are you on the bottle this afternoon bro?? STOP CAP #MMAHour”

Not one to mince words, Albarracin responded with a screenshot of an unsubstantiated report claiming UFC 288 sold an estimated 700,000 pay-per-views, which Sterling dismissed as “absurd.”

“Brew stop this nonsense. [Facepalm emoji] You are smarter than this. “

Ultimately, the animosity between the two camps could set up Cejudo’s next fight.

Although he mentioned possible retirement after the loss, Cejudo joined Sterling’s friend and teammate Merab Dvalishvili at no. 1 contender seems to have quickly pivoted to chase the fight, with Sterling defending his title against Sean O’Malley on the same card. And if that timeline doesn’t work out for one reason or another, Albarracin says he’s happy to wait.

“That storyline, you say they called him out in the press conference — that’s it,” Albarracin said.

“No. 1 competitor. If Sean O’Malley wins, boom, we fight Sean O’Malley. If ‘Aljo’ wins and rises, we are still fighting for the title. Or maybe they won’t fight on the same card and Merab and Henry will fight for the title if not on the same card in Boston.