Henry Cejudo eyes Aljamain Sterling-T.J. Dillashaw winner then Alexander Volkanovski

Henry Cejudo is eyeing a third UFC belt but not until he gets his bantamweight title back.

Cejudo (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) relinquished his 135-pound title after finishing Dominick Cruz in May 2020. He retired from MMA and was removed from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency testing pool.

However, the decision to stay retired didn’t last long, and Cejudo is on the verge of coming back. The former UFC two-division champion wants to become the first to hold belts in three weight classes by going after featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski – but first, he wants the winner of the bantamweight title fight between champion Aljamain Sterling and T.J. Dillashaw, which co-headlines UFC 280 on Oct. 22.

“I’m going for T.J.,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “In the beginning, I was going for Aljo, but I don’t think Aljamain wants to fight me. And I think there’s a bigger storyline with me and T.J. So I come back, beat the brakes off him, win my belt, go up to 145 pounds, and then beat the brakes out of ‘Alexander The Average.’ That’s the plan.”

Cejudo needed only 32 seconds to TKO Dillashaw and retain his flyweight title in January 2019. Cejudo went on to vacate his 125-pound title, and Dillashaw tested positive for recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) after the fight. Now that Dillashaw is back to his original home, recapturing the bantamweight title could lead to a rematch with Cejudo, something he has wanted for a long time now.

Meanwhile, Volkanovski is looking to move up a division himself. The UFC featherweight champion says he has officially been dubbed as the backup for the vacant lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev, which headlines UFC 280.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 280.