Dana White defends Henry Cejudo vs. Jose Aldo fight: ‘Aldo absolutely deserves this’

Bloodyelbow.com

Henry Cejudo’s first defense of his UFC bantamweight title will come against not established contenders Petr Yan or Aljamain Sterling, but instead legendary former featherweight champion Jose Aldo. This matchup has had mixed responses (at best), seeing as Aldo’s sole appearance at 135 lbs ended in a close loss to Marlon Moraes.

UFC president Dana White told TMZ that this title bout is justified primarily on the basis that he (and Cejudo) believed that Aldo got a raw deal against Moraes.

“I think [Jose Aldo] won. I think the judges got it wrong and I think he won the fight [vs. Marlon Moraes].” White said. “When you’ve done what Cejudo has done, and he agrees. He texted me right after the fight and said ‘Aldo won that fight.’ And he wants to fight Aldo. He wants to fight the legend.”

For what it’s worth, media scoring of Aldo vs. Moraes was evenly split, whereas a majority of fans believed Aldo should’ve won 29-28, but hardly an overwhelming majority. A robbery this fight was not.

If Cejudo vs. Aldo doesn’t tickle your fancy, then White has brought back one of his classic lines.

“Then don’t watch it!” White exclaimed. “People are full of sh-t. People are full of sh-t. It’s going to be an incredible fight. Aldo absolutely deserves this, Cejudo wants it. The champ-champ, the guy who won belts in two divisions wants to fight Aldo, so what does that mean? And Cejudo isn’t a guy running around looking for easy fights.”

What’s noticeable is that White said absolutely nothing about Sterling or Yan.

Cejudo vs. Aldo will headline UFC 250 in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 9th.