Bantamweight > Lightweight

The 135-pound Bantamweight division is loaded with talent across the globe in mixed martial arts (MMA). In Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) specifically, former champion Henry Cejudo believes it’s the very best out there.

After Cejudo’s fellow former dual-division champion, Daniel Cormier, recently shared his list of best divisions in the promotion — listing Lightweight at No. 1 — it prompted “Triple C” to vouch for his crop of potential opponents.

“It’s 135 pounds,” Cejudo said on his Triple C & Schmo Show. “You know why? Because you have ‘Triple C’ there, the two-division champ, the Olympic champ, that’s No. 1. No. 2, you got Jose ‘Baldo’ [Aldo], the greatest Featherweight of all time, [now at] 135 pounds. You’ve got Frankie Edgar, the guy that was a champion at 155 pounds. You got Cody Garbrandt who’s a former champ, T.J. Dillashaw, you got Dominick Cruz, you have all these former champions that are in this weight class, and that all formulates all that experience on top of Petr Yan, Aljamain Sterling.”

Currently sitting atop the division is Sterling who initially won the title via disqualification in March 2021 (watch highlights). As recently as UFC 273 this past month (April 9, 2022), “The Funkmaster” successfully defended his spot, earning a split decision against the man he took it from, Petr Yan.

With Cejudo back in the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) drug testing pool, a return at the end of 2022 is imminent. Unsurprisingly, Sterling finds himself directly in the crosshairs of the former titlist.

“There’s like 10 world champions in that damn weight class, man,” Cejudo said. “Where everybody can wrestle, everybody can fight, everybody can mix it, it’s not just one style dominates all. Everybody is diverse at 135 pounds if you really think about how stacked that weight class is, it is stacked. But they call 135 pounds murderer’s row, man. I’m the one that’s gonna murder all these suckas. For that reason, I’m going 135 pounds. You cannot debate that.

“I know what you’re going to say, 155 pounds,” he concluded. “But let me tell you something, Conor McGregor built that storyline. He made 155 pounds a novela!”