When Henry Cejudo became the UFC flyweight champion back in 2018, the division was in a very difficult position.
Demetrious Johnson had been such a dominant champion that the weight class didn’t feel competitive or exciting, at least as far as the UFC was concerned.
Cejudo beating “Mighty Mouse” in the rematch certainly helped to change that and his title reign did contribute to the promotion not getting rid of the division entirely, even if he did only defend the belt once before moving up a weight class and temporarily retiring.
Having suffered back-to-back defeats in his return to the bantamweight division, “Triple C” knows that earning a shot at reclaiming the 135-pound title isn’t going to be easy.
Instead, he’s flirting with the idea of returning to his former home where he first became a champion.
Henry Cejudo Says He’s Thinking About A Flyweight Return As The ‘Savior’ Of The Division
Unlike bantamweight, the UFC’s flyweight division could do with some new and exciting challenges for the champion, Alexandre Pantoja.
The likes of Tatsuro Taira and Amir Albazi could emerge as fresh faces for the champion to face if they can get past two opponents that Pantoja has already beaten multiple times in Brandon Royval and Brandon Moreno.
Another option for his next challenge is Kai Kara-France, who recently defeated another of Pantoja’s former challengers but even then, that impressive win over Steve Erceg at UFC 305 came off the back of consecutive defeats.
With Muhammad Mokaev, who likely would have been next, now out of the picture, it would seemingly be a lot easier for Cejudo to work his way into another UFC title shot, especially considering the fact that he vacated the title rather than losing it.
He spoke on his Pound 4 Pound podcast alongside Kamaru Usman about how the idea has been floating around his head as of late.
“I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit man of potentially going back down dude. You know, obviously, I do believe Merab’s going to win this [bantamweight] belt and I just feel like where I am in the picture at bantam, it just makes it a little harder dude to get back to the damn title dude. So I’ve been making, if I can get on a good diet if I decide to, it’s still not official [moving to flyweight], ‘cuz you know I know like them chimichangas, them gorditas.”
Usman proceeded to laugh at the idea of a former two-weight UFC champion and gold medallist struggling with a diet, only for Cejudo to state how difficult that cut is for him.
“The only reason why I say that bro is because flyweights no joke bro, like making that weight is like f****** cutting off a leg dude.
“It’s to be continued. I think there’s a lot of good fights too. It was a belt that I left, I left undefeated, I left as champion, I gave it to the flyweights, I saved the damn division and if I do decide, you know, I want to talk to Mick Maynard man. I mean I am the savior of the flyweights and they all know that so. I always felt like all the flyweights should pay a 20% royalty to the true king.”
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