UFC: Henry Cejudo Retires After 22 Years Of Fighting

At 33 years old, Henry Cejudo has retired from active competition in MMA. The Olympic gold medallist and two division UFC champion has called time on his extraordinary career after leaving UFC 249 victorious.

‘Triple C’ defeated Dominick Cruz to retain his bantamweight title. The future UFC Hall of Famer secured a controversial TKO victory, after dropping Cruz with a knee to the head at the very end of round two.

Dominick had absorbed ten unanswered ground strikes but looked like he may be able to make his way back to his feet, when the official stepped in and stopped the fight. The decision drew criticism from Cruz and some fans after the co-main event. Speaking to Joe Rogan inside the Octagon, Cejudo broke down the fight and revealed his shock retirement to the world.

“I’m a chameleon, I can adjust man. You can try study me and train for me but at the end of the day I’m an athlete and I have a great coach.

“I actually kinda wanna make an announcement man. Uncle Dana, UFC, everybody, thank you so much. Joe, I’m happy with my career. I’ve done enough in the sport. I want to walk away. I wanna enjoy myself. I’m 33 years old and I have a girl now, Amanda, who’s back home. I eventually wanna start a family.

“Since I was 11 years old I’ve sacrificed my whole life to get to where I am today and I’m not gonna let anyone take that away from me, so I’m retiring tonight Joe.”

Following Cejudo’s revelation, his head coach Eric Albarracin spoke to ESPN about his decision.

During his post fight conference, Cejudo suggested that the UFC make a four man tournament to find the next bantamweight champion.

“If I was the UFC, I would make a tournament. I’d make a four bracket tournament. Petr Yan, Aljamain Sterling, Cory Sandhagen. And maybe ‘Baldo’ (Jose Aldo). I think that’s fair. Or even Marlon [Moraes]. Throw Marlon up in that mix.”

Earlier this week, Cejudo suggested that he may even enter the USA wrestling team for another Olympic cycle. However as of now, ‘Triple C’ has retired as only the second UFC fighter to have vacated titles in two different weight classes.

Do you think we’ll Henry Cejudo fight inside the UFC Octagon again?


See also:


Tagged: , , , , ,

Leave comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.