The championship fights at the top of the UFC 273 card were
apparently enough to inspire Henry
Cejudo to come out of retirement.
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Cejudo’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, informed
ESPN that the former UFC two-division champion will re-enter
the USADA drug testing pool on Monday. Fighters are generally
subject to six months of drug testing before they can return to
active competition, according to the UFC’s anti-doping policy.
“Henry will focus on his fight and training,” Abdelaziz told ESPN. “He never stopped training. I truly believe Henry can come back to
win the [bantamweight] title and go up to 145 and win that. He will
be the only fighter in UFC history to win three world titles.”
I’m getting back in the pool!
— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo)
April 10, 2022
Shortly after the conclusion of UFC 273, Cejudo tweeted, “I’m
getting back in the pool,” which signaled that the Olympic gold
medalist is planning to end his retirement. UFC 273 saw Alexander
Volkanovski retain his featherweight belt with a fourth-round
stoppage of Chan Sung
Jung in the main event, while Aljamain
Sterling unified the bantamweight crown with a split-decision
triumph over Petr Yan. Both
could be potential targets for Cejudo if he follows through with
his comeback.
Twitter Sunday night. “When it comes to wrestling…you couldn’t pin
a tweet. I would take you down and choke you out quicker than a
McGregor relapse. Sign the contract.”
Cejudo announced his retirement following a second-round technical
knockout victory over Dominick
Cruz at UFC 249 in May 2020, his first defense of the
bantamweight title. Cejudo has teased a return on multiple
occasions, but this appears to be the most sincere attempt. Cejudo
went 10-2 in UFC competition from 2014 to 2020, posting wins over
the likes of Demetrious
Johnson, T.J.
Dillashaw, Marlon
Moraes, Sergio
Pettis and Jussier
Formiga while establishing himself as one of the top
pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
More recently, Cejudo has been a coach at Fight Ready in Arizona,
helping train the likes of Jon Jones,
Deiveson
Figueiredo, Weili Zhang
and Jiri
Prochazka, to name a few.
@alexvolkanovski
you’ve inspired me to come back. When it comes to wrestling…you
couldn’t pin a tweet. I would take you down and choke you out
quicker than a McGregor relapse. Sign the contract. https://t.co/3gX1oI1bNO— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo)
April 10, 2022