Henry Cejudo Confirms He Has Not Returned To USADA Testing Pool, Labels Reports As ‘Fake News’
Former undisputed UFC bantamweight and flyweight champion, Henry Cejudo has denied recent claims from former light heavyweight and middleweight title challenger, Chael Sonnen that he has re-entered the USADA anti-doping testing pool ahead of a speculated return, labelling his claims as “fake news”.
Cejudo, an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling to boot, retired from professional mixed martial arts back in May 2020 following the co-main event of UFC 249, stopping former two-time bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz with a second round knockout to successfully defend his title.
In the time since, however, Henry Cejudo has been continually linked with a return to the sport, against the likes of now-teammate and flyweight champion, Deiveson Figueiredo, and bantamweight titleholders, Aljamain Sterling, and Petr Yan.
However, last month, the Los Angeles native offered to replace former featherweight champion, Max Holloway on short notice in a UFC 274 title fight against Alexander Volkanovski on April 9. on short notice, however, the promotion elected to book Volkanovski against the #4 ranked, Chan Sung Jung.
In turn, Henry Cejudo claimed that UFC president, Dana White wanted to pay him “peanuts” to make a return to Octagon in a bid to become the first three-weight champion in promotional history, however, White later insisted that Cejudo could not just jump the line at featherweight and fight for gold in his comeback.
Henry Cejudo secured defenses of both his flyweight and bantamweight titles before his May 2020 retirement
Over the course of last weekend, reports emerged, mainly from the above mentioned, Sonnen, who claimed that Cejudo had informed him that he had returned to the USADA testing pool with the view of making his UFC comeback.
However, when speaking with MMA Junkie reporter, Mike Bohn, Cejudo denied that he had made a return to the testing pool or anti-doping programe, labelling claims as “fake news”.
“Henry Cejudo tells me that Chael Sonnen’s claim he’s re-entered the USADA (testing) pool is “fake news”,” Bohn tweeted.
At the time of his retirement, Henry Cejudo, who plys his trade at Fight Ready MMA & Fitness in Scottsdale, Arizona – was in the midst of a six-fight winning run over Cruz, Marlon Moraes, T.J. Dillashaw, Demetrious Johnson, Wilson Reis, and current Bellator bantamweight best, Sergio Pettis.
