Yadong
Song believes Henry
Cejudo didn’t time his career trajectory well.
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Cejudo was at the peak of his career when he abruptly 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 the announcement to have an edge in contract
negotiations. However, things didn’t pan out as planned if Cejudo
had indeed tried to do so.
The former flyweight champ ended his retirement and returned to
action in 2023. Cejudo came up on the short side of split decision
in a bantamweight title fight against Aljamain
Sterling at UFC 288 in 2023. The Olympic gold medalist followed
it up with a unanimous decision loss against future champ Merab
Dvalishvili at UFC 298 last year. Cejudo initially hinted at
retirement in case of a loss against “The Machine” but has since
changed course. While Cejudo’s losses came against arguably the two
best fighters of the division, “Triple C” is undoubtedly at a
crucial juncture in his career. Cejudo’s upcoming opponent,
Yadong
Song, believes “The Messenger” shouldn’t have retired when he
did and should have stayed retired instead of returning when he
did.
“I mean it’s not good time for him to come back and it wasn’t the
good time for him to retire,” Song told Home of Fight.
Song and Cejudo are scheduled to headline UFC
Fight Night 252 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle,
Washington on Feb. 22. While Yadong believes Cejudo is capable of
taking him down, he trusts himself enough to get back up.
“He’s Olympic level wrestling skilled. I believe he can take me
down but I don’t think he can hold me down,” Song said. “I know I
can handle it. I believe my ground skills. And this fight I will
try my best to knock him out and give him a lot of pressure in the
cage.”