Henry Cejudo Gets Called Out For ‘Racist’ Aljamain Sterling Dig

Aljamain Sterling and UFC bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo have had their fair share of back-and-forths for the past few weeks.

Sterling is upset that Cejudo is opting to defend his 135-pound title against Jose Aldo next, the former featherweight champion who comes off of a controversial decision loss to Marlon Moraes in his bantamweight debut. However, contenders like Sterling and Petr Yan have seemingly done more to warrant a shot at the championship.

Cejudo was recently interviewed by ESPN and asked about his next title defense, and took aim at Sterling for his recent criticisms. In his Tweet, Cejudo referred to Sterling, who is African-American, as “Aljamima Sterling.” This seems to be a play on the Aunt Jemima syrup name, whose mascot is an African-American woman.

“Triple C doesn’t even pay attention to Aljamima Sterling Silver @funkmastermma secondly, Triple C wants to fight you Petr, but your English needs to get Betr, you ugly communist potato. And last but not least, my tune-up fight, the cabbage patch head Jose Waldo.”

That Tweet didn’t sit well with ESPN broadcaster Karyn Bryant. Bryant said she respects Cejudo as an athlete and is usually thick-skinned, not being offended by much, but believes Cejudo’s comments, although, perhaps not intentional, were racist. She ended her comment with, “Please stop.”

“Champ, I respect your talent. And I have thick skin. BUT, if you were wondering if calling @funkmasterMMA “Aljamima” was racist, the answer is yes. Yes it is. Please stop.”

Bryant even came under fire for her response, as many defended Cejudo by saying his comments weren’t racist, and she was simply feeding into an overly sensitive culture. However, Bryant responded by saying that wasn’t the case. Bryant noted that she likes Cejudo and hopes he can learn something from this.

“I am rarely offended, TBH. And maybe he didn’t “mean” it, but that doesn’t mean it’s a great idea for him to keep using it. I pointed it out in the hopes that he’d stop. I like Henry! I don’t have a problem with him, just thought he could learn something here…”

As of this writing, Sterling has not commented on Cejudo’s controversial remark, but he did, however, retweet Bryant’s Tweet, calling the comment racist.

What do you think about Cejudo’s comments? Did he go too far?