Henry
Cejudo is contemplating retirement yet again.
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The former
Ultimate Fighting Championship double champ previously
announced a surprising retirement in May 2020 after defeating
Dominick
Cruz via technical knockout at UFC 249.
“Triple C” came out of retirement for a bantamweight gold bid
against Aljamain
Sterling at UFC
288 in May last year, suffering a split decision loss.
Cejudo is now slated to face Merab
Dvalishvili at
UFC 298 on Feb. 17 at the Honda Center in Anaheim,
California.
With Aljamain
Sterling booked for his featherweight debut, the winner of the
Cejudo vs. Dvalishvili clash is expected to fight for the title
next against the winner of Sean O’Malley’s UFC
299 title clash against longtime rival Marlon
Vera.
However, if the 36-year-old Cejudo comes up short at UFC 298, he
would consider calling it a career again.
“This is for the No. 1 contender spot,” he told The
HJR Experiment. “I think to have to lose it to Aljamain … I
think if I was going to go maybe down the ladder, I would probably
be done with fighting again because it’s just like the sport is
hard, man. Training camps, having two kids, and things like that. …
It’s all or nothing, man.
“It’s more of a motivation of vengeance. It’s not always the love.
Even coming back to the sport, I was like, ‘I want to test myself.’
I like the matchup [vs. Sterling]. It has been three years, but it
was also the financial compensation. I mean, there’s nothing easier
to make money than the fight game.”
UFC 298 is headlined by a featherweight title clash, where reigning
champion Alexander
Volkanovski will take on an undefeated contender Ilia
Topuria. In the co-main event, former UFC middleweight champion
Robert
Whittaker will face another divisional veteran in Paulo
Costa.