After canceling second retirement, Henry Cejudo eyeing fights with Sean O’Malley and Brandon Moreno
He’s not f*ckin’ leaving!
Despite dubbing his UFC 298 meeting with Merab Dvalishvili as an “all or nothing” situation, Henry Cejudo has reversed his decision to retire for a second time. Instead, the former two-division titleholder will look to bounce back inside the Octagon and he already has a couple of big names in mind.
“There’s still that (Sean) O’Malley fight,” Cejudo said in a video on his YouTube channel. “I still don’t think O’Malley’s going to get past ‘Chito.’ We could potentially headline something like that in Phoenix.”
O’Malley is currently scheduled to defend his bantamweight title against Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera in the UFC 299 headliner on March 9. Should ‘Sugar’ retain his title against the only make to have beaten him inside the Octagon, ‘Triple C’ already has a contingency plan in place.
“There’s that fight with Brandon Moreno,” Cejudo said. “There’s that bad blood that, you know, former training partners that were somewhat best friends leading up to the breakup, to having a good, nice little Mexican showdown for all you fans” (h/t MMA Junkie).
Will Cejudo Drop Down to Flyweight for Grudge Match with Moreno?
Cejudo has called for a clash with Moreno on more than one occasion after going their separate ways, though it’s unclear if he would be willing to drop down to flyweight to meet ‘The Assassin Baby’ for a potential grudge match. The last time Cejudo competed at 125, it was for a title defense against T.J. Dillashaw in 2019.
Moreno is scheduled to headline UFC’s return to Mexico on Saturday, February 24 against familiar foe Brandon Royval in the evening’s main event while Cejudo is fresh off a unanimous decision loss to the No. 1 ranked bantamweight contender in the world.
Cejudo has now lost back-to-back bouts since returning from a three-year-long layoff. ‘Triple C’ previously stated that a loss against ‘The Machine’ would send him back into retirement, but he has since rescinded the claim.
