Henry Cejudo was initially part of the group of people who didn’t have kind words for the nature of Aljamain Sterling’s title win at UFC 259, but now he’s changed his stance.

Sterling (20-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) won the UFC bantamweight title from Petr Yan in historic fashion on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. An illegal knee strike by Yan (15-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) in the fourth round dropped the challenger and led to the first title change by disqualification in company history.

There were a number of fans and fighters who questioned whether Sterling oversold the significance of the blow, and Cejudo (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC), a former titleholder at 135 pounds who retied in May, was among them (via Twitter):

Hey Yan, you kneed me to come back to save this dIvision. That knee was more illegal than TJ Dillashaw’s urine. Aljo, your defense was worse than the Capitol Building. I’ll make all you Bend the Knee..legally of coarse. #YouAllSuck @TJDillashaw @funkmasterMMA @PetrYanUFC

— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) March 7, 2021

Hey Yan, you kneed me to come back to save this dIvision. That knee was more illegal than TJ Dillashaw’s urine. Aljo, your defense was worse than the Capitol Building. I’ll make all you Bend the Knee..legally of coarse. #YouAllSuck

He got concussed and he couldn’t fight but he could conduct a full ass interview and tweet after… this is why an Olympic gold medal is greatest accomplishment an athlete could do! But hey @funkmasterMMA at least you know you could make it Hollywood. And I’m not evening hating pic.twitter.com/YNUUMRfbvs

— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) March 7, 2021

He got concussed and he couldn’t fight but he could conduct a full ass interview and tweet after… this is why an Olympic gold medal is greatest accomplishment an athlete could do! But hey @funkmasterMMA at least you know you could make it Hollywood. And I’m not evening hating

Upon further reflection of the situation, Cejudo admitted he was too harsh on Sterling.

“I do want to apologize to Aljamain – I really do,” Cejudo said in a Twitter video. “I was a little upset. I was a little mad. But at the same time, I was more mad that he ended up doing the interview and then the tweets and saw the pictures of him with the belt. It just rubbed me the wrong way. But at the end of the day it was an illegal strike by Petr ‘The Ugly Potato’ Yan. I want to apologize to him for some of my tweets.”

UFC president Dana White said after UFC 259 that he intends on booking a rematch between Sterling and Yan. Prior to the knee, Yan was ahead on two of the three scorecards, with the momentum strongly trending in his direction in the fourth before his title-losing mistake.

Cejudo said he thinks a rematch would favor Yan, unless Sterling can make the proper adjustments.

“If I was to give Aljamain Sterling, curling silver, some advice: You need to understand your threshold,” Cejudo said. “You ain’t going to get somebody – especially the caliber of athlete like him … you need to understand your threshold and how you can finish the race correctly, especially within five rounds.

“They’re going to have a rematch, and I don’t think it’s going to change. If I was Aljamain, I would tell him to forget all that volume and just worry about one strike.”