Yadong Song believes Henry Cejudo didn’t time his career trajectory well.
Cejudo was at the peak of his career when he suddenly announced his retirement after defending his bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz at UFC 249 in 2020. At the time, there was speculation that Triple C made this announcement to gain an advantage in contract negotiations. . However, things didn’t go as planned even though Cejudo actually tried to do so.
The former flyweight champion has ended his retirement and will return in 2023. At UFC 288 in 2023, Cejudo took a short-sided split decision in his bantamweight title bout against Aljamain Sterling. The Olympic gold medalist then lost by unanimous decision. Last year at UFC 298, he faced future champion Merab Dvalishvili. Cejudo initially hinted that he would retire if he lost against “The Machine,” but later changed his mind. While Cejudo’s losses were against arguably two of the best fighters in the division, there is no doubt that ‘Triple C’ is at an important crossroads in his career. Cejudo’s next opponent, Yadong Song, believes that “The Messenger” should not have retired when he retired, and should have remained retired instead of coming back when he retired.
“So it wasn’t a good time for him to come back and it wasn’t a good time for him to retire,” Son told Home of Fight.
Son and Cejudo are scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 252 on February 22nd at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. Yadong believes that Cejudo can defeat him, but he believes in himself enough to get back up.
“He’s an Olympic-level wrestler. I believe he can beat me, but I don’t think he can hold me down,” Song said. “I know I can handle it. I believe in my ground skills and I’m going to do everything in this fight to knock him out and put a lot of pressure inside the cage.”
