Henry Cejudo‘s coach, Eric Albarracin, claims UFC 288 had 700,000 pay-per-view buys, a figure that champion Aljamain Sterling disputes, saying the event would be lucky to break 250,000 buys.
Henry Cejudo’s coach, Eric Albarracin, had some strong words after UFC 288 involving champion Aljamain Sterling. Sterling had previously commented on the need to “shut up” Cejudo and advised Albarracin and Cejudo’s team to stop acting like “asshats and clowns” after a tense build towards the fight. Albarracin fired back on The MMA Hour, defending his team and highlighting the behavior of Sterling and his team, including Merab O’Malley dressed in a Michael Jackson Thriller jacket and Ray Longo’s aggressive language towards Cejudo.
Albarracin also claimed that the pay-per-view numbers for UFC 288 were 700,000, more than double anything Sterling has ever achieved. Sterling’s team declined to comment on the claim, but Sterling himself seemed to refute it, tweeting at Albarracin that breaking 250,000 pay-per-view buys would be lucky. Sterling continued to challenge Albarracin, calling his claims “nonsense” and questioning his intelligence.
The animosity between the two camps may be setting up Cejudo’s next fight. After mentioning possible retirement after his loss, Cejudo has quickly pivoted towards a No. 1 contender fight with Merab Dvalishvili, Sterling’s friend and teammate, on the same card where Sterling defends his title against Sean O’Malley. Albarracin stated that if the timeline doesn’t work, they are happy to wait and fight for the title on a different card.