Dominick Cruz is convinced that we’ve all seen the last of Henry Cejudo inside the UFC Octagon.
At UFC 249, Henry Cejudo became the first man to defeat Dominick Cruz via KO/TKO and then made the surprise decision to ride off into the sunset and retire at the age of 33. Cejudo has not completely disappeared from the MMA scene, though, as he has continued to remain active on social media and share his insight on the happenings in the UFC. The former double champion has also teased a comeback frequently, specifically in his call-outs of featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
It appears neither the UFC nor Volkanovski is currently interested in this fight, however. So if Cejudo is holding out for a super-deal or for Dana White and the UFC to go out of their way to accommodate him, Dominick Cruz believes that would ensure he will go down as the final opponent in Cejudo’s career.
“I don’t think [he comes back],” Cruz said in a Wednesday ESPN interview when asked about a potential Cejudo return. “He has this thing where he thinks that he’s worth millions and millions of dollars, and I think that Dana doesn’t care. So probably not, because he wants a certain amount of money before he’ll come back and fight, and I don’t know if he’ll ever get that.”
Dominick Cruz Considers Cejudo The Joke of Bantamweight Division
The bantamweight division hasn’t skipped a beat since Cejudo’s retirement. A new champion was promptly filled when Petr Yan defeated Jose Aldo for the vacant championship at UFC 251, and Aljamain Sterling was able to solidify himself as the #1 contender in the division to set up a showdown between the two next weekend. And being one of the deepest divisions in the UFC, Dominick Cruz believes that for all of Cejudo’s antics and theatrics, the joke is on him if he thinks anyone is missing him.
“You look at the rest of the division, Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling, two contenders that are fighting for the belt coming up, those guys aren’t asking for a ton of money, and they’re going to bring a crazy fight to the table,” Cruz said. “Why would you bring back Cejudo, who’s playing it safe on the sidelines? For what?
“He doesn’t bring any extra views. If you’re a Conor McGregor, if you’re a Ronda Rousey, yes, you’d figure it out. But if you’re Henry Cejudo? He doesn’t bring some sort of awe factor to these fights to where everybody can’t wait to tune in to watch. They’re just kind of laughing at him. He’s cringey.”
Dominick Cruz is set to face Casey Kenney at UFC 259 next Saturday alongside the bantamweight title fight combatants Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling.
Do you think we will ever see Henry Cejudo compete in the UFC again?
