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A title bout in the sport's deepest division headlines Saturday's UFC 288 pay-per-view card as the Octagon returns to the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, for the first time since 2019.

Aljamain Sterling will look to make the third defense of his 135-pound title when he welcomes former champion Henry Cejudo, who returns from a near three-year retirement. A pair of all-action welterweights will also meet in the co-feature, likely with a title shot at stake, when Belal Muhammad faces Gilbert Burns.

Let's take a closer look at the biggest storylines heading into this weekend. 

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1. How good can we expect Henry Cejudo to be? 

Three years after his abrupt retirement from the sport, Cejudo is now 36. He has teased a return seemingly ever since he first stepped away and has stayed close to MMA during his absence as both a podcaster and coach-for-hire as a consultant to such top stars as Jon Jones and Weili Zhang. Yet, there's also a damning statistic in which Cejudo will need to prove the exception to when he faces Sterling for the belt he never lost: UFC fighters over 35 and competing between 125 and 170 pounds are 2-28 overall in title bouts. In Cejudo's case, his overall mileage from damage accrued remains low. The 2008 Olympic gold medalist is also among the smartest and most adaptive fighters in UFC history with a genius fighting IQ. Fellow legends like Georges St-Pierre, Dominick Cruz and even Jones have been able to return in recent years after long layoffs without cage rust slowing them down. If Cejudo, a former two-division UFC champion, is able to defeat a pound-for-pound ranked champion like Sterling under these conditions, it would become increasingly hard to leave "The Messenger" out of discussions surrounding the greatest champions in the promotion's decorated history. 

2. This is the defining test of Sterling's title reign

Ever since he first captured the bantamweight title via disqualification in 2021 after Petr Yan landed an illegal knee strike, Sterling's reign atop the 135-pound division has been much maligned. Yes, Sterling came back 13 months later in the rematch to edge Yan by split decision after injuries delayed his return atop such a talented yet bottlenecked division. But Sterling's second title defense last October, although far from his own fault, turned out to be a laugher when former champion TJ Dillashaw entered with a pre-existing shoulder injury at UFC 280 only to aggravate it again in the first round en route to an easy stoppage defeat. While no one is questioning the talent of the 33-year-old champion, who is riding an eight-fight win streak, a clear win over someone of Cejudo's ilk and reputation would do wonders for Sterling's legacy and reputation with no shortage of talented challengers waiting in line for their own title opportunity. 

3. Muhammad-Burns feels unnecessarily rushed

If anyone is looking for a reason why this likely No. 1 contender's fight between exciting welterweight contenders was forced into Saturday's card on just three weeks' notice, the easy answer is because the promotion needed a co-feature to help sell the PPV. Yet the more one digs into the specifics about the gamble being taken by both fighters at such a key point in their hope to land an elusive and career-defining opportunity at the 170-pound title, the more questions abound. Burns, 36, is fresh off a three-round decision win over Jorge Masvidal just three weeks ago, in a fight in which "Durinho" broke character afterwards by demanding a title shot to UFC brass. Instead, he accepted yet another play-in opportunity toward a second shot at UFC gold, only this one is a non-title bout set for five rounds, which UFC president Dana White said both fighters pushed for. Yet even though Muhammad, 34, hasn't fought since he stopped unbeaten Sean Brady last October, he was anything but ready for the fight when UFC called at the last minute. Muhammad still had one week of fasting to undergo during his month-long observance of Ramadan as a practicing Muslim, yet accepted the fight anyway amid a stretch in which UFC was routinely criticized for granting Colby Covington the next shot at Leon Edwards' title. Both Burns and Muhammad said yes because the opportunity was too large to pass up, but that doesn't mean this was the best decision for the promotion or the fighters. 

4. It's out of the fryer and into the pan for Bryce Mitchell

Last December, Mitchell was a 15-0 featherweight prospect looking to stamp his ticket toward an eventual title shot. But the proud native of Arkansas ran into the rising hammer that is unbeaten Ilia Topuria, who battered Mitchell so violently in a second-round submission loss that "Thug Nasty" was openly contemplating retirement at age 28 in the aftermath. Five months later, Mitchell is back on the saddle against yet another top-10 contender in the form of 16-0 Movsar Evloev. A 29-year-old native of Russia, Evloev has won all six of his UFC bouts since a 2019 debut and is fresh off a dominant victory over respected veteran Dan Ige. Consider this a stiff test at finding out exactly where Mitchell is at, both mentally and physically, following such a devastating setback. 

5. Bah gawd, that's Kron Gracie's music!

Remember that name? It was 2019 when we last saw the 34-year-old Gracie in the Octagon following an all-action decision loss to Cub Swanson. At 5-1 overall in MMA, Gracie has long been an interesting prospect not just for his allegiance to his training partners, the Diaz brothers, or his family lineage as the son of Rickson Gracie and grandson of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu co-founder Helio Gracie. A decorated submission grappler on the world level, the most interesting part of Gracie's return will be whether he leans on his strengths opposite the striking prowess of Charles Jourdain. Gracie was roundly criticized by members of his own family in the years that followed his loss to Swanson because of his stubborn insistence upon avoiding grappling in that fight and focusing on his raw striking. It's hard to imagine what type of hunger Gracie has left yet he's still young enough to potentially make an impact provided he spent the layoff working on rounding out his game.