PPV & VPN Guide – Rolling Stone

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Henry Cejudo is back for his belt.

After retiring as a champion in 2020, Cejudo’s bantamweight title was vacated and quickly picked up by Petr Yan. In 2021, Yan lost the championship to Aljamain Sterling, who has successfully defended the title twice. Now, Cejudo has come out of retirement to reclaim the bantamweight title.

To make the card more interesting, Movsar Evloev and Diego Lopes are set to clash before Sterling and Cejudo.

Looking to watch UFC 288: Sterling vs Cejudo live tonight? Read on. Below is a full guide on how to stream UFC 288 — including a VPN hack that gets you UFC 288 for just $31.

Buy UFC 288 PPV Livestream $79.99

Quick Guide: Ways to Livestream UFC 288

U.S. Livestream: Get an ESPN+ subscription and purchase the UFC 288 PPV livestream

Livestream Without Paying PPV Cost: Stream UFC 288 on the U.K.’s BT Sports with ExpressVPN (no PPV purchase required)

UFC 288: Sterling vs. Cejudo U.S. Livestream

ESPN+ is the exclusive U.S. broadcaster of UFC events, so you’ll need to get a membership to ESPN+ (if you don’t already have one) to watch UFC 288: Sterling vs Cejudo online. Once you have a subscription to ESPN+, you’ll be able to purchase the UFC 288 pay-per-view (PPV) livestream through your account.

A subscription to ESPN+ costs $9.99 a month, but you can save in the long run by getting an annual subscription at $99 (this saves $20 compared to paying month-to-month for a year). However, the best way to get ESPN+ is to sign up for the Disney Bundle, which includes subscriptions to ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu — all for $12.99 a month. This saves about $11 a month compared to paying for each streaming service separately.

Buy Disney Bundle $12.99

After you’ve signed up for ESPN+, log into your new account here and purchase the UFC 288 PPV livestream. The PPV costs $79.99, bringing your total to $89.98 for the PPV livestream and a monthly ESPN+ subscription.

Buy UFC 288 PPV Livestream $79.99

NOTE: Instead of getting the UFC 288 PPV and a monthly ESPN+ subscription, you can save big by taking advantage of ESPN+’s UFC PPV + annual subscription bundle deal. This deal gets you the UFC 288 PPV livestream and an annual subscription for $124.98, which is $55 less than buying the PPV and the subscription separately. But, if you don’t want ESPN+ for the rest of the year, go with the monthly subscription option instead.

Buy UFC 288 + ESPN+ Bundle $124.98

DEAL: Livestream UFC 288 With a VPN

UFC numbered events are pricey, but you can watch them for much less by using a VPN to access BT Sport’s U.K. livestream of UFC events.

In the U.K., most UFC events are broadcast on BT Sport and don’t require a PPV purchase to watch. A subscription to BT Sport costs just £29.99 (about $38) for a month-to-month, contract-free subscription, and lets you livestream UFC 288 online.

Buy ExpressVPN $12.95

BT Sport is normally geo-blocked for U.S. viewers, but you can get around that using a good VPN like ExpressVPN. First, sign up for ExpressVPN, which costs $12.95 a month (and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee). Then, use ExpressVPN to set your location to the U.K., sign up for BT Sport, and enjoy a UFC 288 livestream without paying for the PPV.

Buy BT Sport Subscription £29.99

When is UFC 288? Date, Time, Location

UFC 288: Sterling vs. Cejudo is happening tonight, Saturday, May 6, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

The main card is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT, with early prelims starting at 6 p.m. ET and prelims at 8 p.m. ET.

UFC 288: Sterling vs Cejudo Odds, Undercard

Sterling vs. Cejudo is a hard one to call, as both fighters are bantamweight champions with long careers. Plus, no one has seen Cejudo in action for the last three years.

Because of these circumstances, oddsmakers are essentially giving the fight a 50-50 chance to go either way. As of writing, FanDuel is showing a -111 moneyline for Sterling and a -115 moneyline for Cejudo, giving Cejudo a very slight edge.

Prior to his retirement, “The Messenger” Cejudo went 10-2 in the UFC and 16-2 in his overall MMA career. Before winning the bantamweight championship in 2019, the Phoenix native held the flyweight belt from 2018 until his switch to bantamweight the following year. His most recent fight was a successful bantamweight title defense against Dominick Cruz in May of 2020.

Sterling, on the other hand, boasts a 22-3 MMA record, including an eight-fight win streak since 2018. He took the bantamweight title from Petr Yan in March of 2021, winning via disqualification after Yan landed an illegal knee to Sterling’s face. But, in a rematch last year, Sterling proved to be the better fighter by beating Yan and defending the title. “Funk Master” subsequently defended the title once more against T.J. Dillashaw in October.

At Sterling and Cejudo’s final faceoff on Friday, things got physical. After Sterling put his fingers in Cejudo’s, Cejudo slapped his hand away and Sterling proceeded to push the challenger before the two were separated.

Here’s the full fight card leading up to Sterling vs. Cejudo:

Main Card
Aljamain Sterling (c) vs. Henry Cejudo — Bantamweight championship
Belal Muhammad vs. Gilbert Burns — Welterweight
Jessica Andrade vs. Yan Xiaonan — Women’s Strawweight
Movsar Evloev vs. Diego Lopes — Featherweight
Kron Gracie vs. Charles Jourdain — Featherweight

Prelims
Drew Dober vs. Matt Frevola — Lightweight
Kennedy Nzechukwu vs. Devin Clark — Light Heavyweight
Khaos Williams vs. Rolando Bedoya — Welterweight
Marina Rodriguez vs. Virna Jandiroba — Women’s Strawweight

Early Prelims
Braxton Smith vs. Parker Porter — Heavyweight
Phil Hawes vs. Ikram Aliskerov — Middleweight
Rafael Estevam vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov — Flyweight
Joseph Holmes vs. Claudio Ribeiro — Middleweight
Daniel Santos vs. Johnny Munoz Jr. — Bantamweight