After a thrilling card that featured plenty of finishes and standout performances, UFC Seattle's main event between Henry Cejudo and Song Yadong left the west coast crowd with a lot to be desired.
Song came out on top in his main event bout against former two-division champion Henry Cejudo via decision, but the fight's conclusion came under dubious circumstances.
The first round proved to be close, but quiet. "Triple C" tried to use his boxing, mixing in leg kicks, to start dictating how the fight would go. Song, however, seemed to land the stronger strikes and combinations in answering back. This pace continued into the second round, but the American would have the notable strongest strikes of the round, busting up "The Kung Fu Kid's" nose late in the frame.
But everything came to a sudden and spiraling halt in the third round, when Cejudo was poked in the eye accidentally on two occasions. The 2008 Olympic gold medalist took the full five minutes, saying he was still fine to fight. But upon going back to his corner at the end of the third, Cejudo complained that he was unable to see.
The fight was halted, and referee Jason Herzog ruled that with three out of the possible five rounds completed, the fight would go to the judges' scorecards for a technical decision. He even claimed to Song's team that such a ruling would save him from what would have been a disqualification loss.
The Chinese contender won on all three judges' cards, with two 29-28s and a 30-27.
Song Yadong Gets Technical Decision Win Over Henry Cejudo In Lackluster UFC Seattle Main Event
Song has now won three of four and six of his last eight. He rebounds from a loss to Petr Yan at UFC 299 last year.
Cejudo, meanwhile, has now lost all three fights since coming out of retirement, dropping a split decision to Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288 for the bantamweight title and a unanimous decision to current champ Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 298.