UFC 288 took place last night (Saturday, May 6, 2023) inside the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, featuring a fight for the Bantamweight title that saw the division’s champion, Aljamain Sterling, defeat Henry Cejudo via split decision (scorecards here). In the co-main event, Bilal Muhammad took it to Gilbert Burns by 25 minutes to claim a unanimous decision victory (summarized here).
Biggest winner: Aljamin Sterling
It wasn’t dominant, but Sterling did enough – at least from a two judge’s point of view – to return the split decision win and his title. The “Funkmaster” now has three consecutive title defenses in his back pocket, so his confidence must grow after each win. And he’ll need it on an all-time high when he faces Sean O’Malley later this year for his fourth title defense. Cejudo is a tough draw for anyone, so this is a big score for Sterling to put on his resume, despite what some naysayers might say about his “Triple C’s” tenure may hinder his performance.
Runner-up: Bilal Muhammad
All Mohammed does is keep winning. By defeating Burns, Remember the Name won his ninth fight in his last 10 bouts, with his only blemish being a no-contest (NC) against the reigning champion, Leon Edwards. Muhammad has firmly established himself as a title contender, but he’ll have to wait and see if Colby Covington actually gets his next shot against “Rocky”… after the summer, of course. However, Mohamed can take his time to see how the championship picture plays out in the coming months and enjoy his big win.
Biggest loser: Crone Gracie
In one of the more bizarre performances within the Octagon, Gracie has left fan warriors baffled as to his production, or lack thereof, against Charles Jourdain. He wasn’t aggressive with anything, really, like he didn’t want to be there. Perhaps this was an indication of how interested he was in this event. But aside from his poor performance after a four-year hiatus, Gracie has now lost two straight fights inside the Octagon and something tells me the chances of him seeing him there again are slim to none. It’s not like I knew this was the kind of underperformance Gracie was going to turn out to be, but I personally took issue with this fight being on the main card instead of Dober vs.
For full UFC 288 results, coverage and highlights, click here here.