Back in early May, the UFC’s lower weight classes were turned on it’s head when “Triple C” Henry Cejduo announced that he was walking away from the sport.
Cejudo had just stopped Dominick Cruz in the second round of his first title defense in the bantamweight division. In the post-fight interview, Cejudo told Joe Rogan that at 33-years old, he was walking away.
The Motivation for Retirement
To Cejudo’s point in the post-fight interview, he could walk away with nothing to improve. He won and successfully defended belts in two UFC weight classes along with winning an Olympic gold medal.
Cejudo from a credentials standpoint is one of the greatest combat sports to have ever lived. You cannot deny him of that.
Cejudo began to mention that he wanted to get paid more. He started pushing this after he defeated TJ Dillashaw back in January of 2019.
Flyweights notoriously were not the highest paid guys in the UFC, but Cejudo wanted to change that based on his performances.
Cejudo moved up to fight Marlon Moraes at UFC 238 to try to become a double champ, and he successfully did that. Yet, it seemed Cejudo was still not happy with his compensation.
While he didn’t come right out and say that, one has to wonder if that was the primary reason that Triple C walked away from the sport after UFC 249.
When will he return to the UFC?
This is the million dollar question when it comes to Cejudo. When and will he actually return to the UFC?
Right after Cejudo retired, it was rumored that he was trying to get a boxing match against young standout, Ryan Garcia. The fight would net Cejudo a pretty penny if it came together, but nothing ever got close to getting done.
Cejudo has remained extremely active on Twitter calling out UFC fighters despite being retired. The one fighter he seems to be calling out the most is Alexander Volkanovski.
This is the only fight that matters to my legacy and would cement me as the goat of my sport! Who wants to see me make @alexvolkanovski bend the knee!? Triple C ? pic.twitter.com/DBiRQp9PuA
— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) July 22, 2020
Volkanovski holds something that would cement Cejudo as a combat sport immortal. The UFC‘s featherweight title is something that Cejduo covets more than anything.
If the UFC were to ever put on that fight and Cejudo win, he would become the first man in UFC history to win a title in three weight classes to go along with his Olympic gold medal.
Cejudo told Joe Rogan on JRE that this would be the one fight he’d come back for. Of course Dana White and company are hesitant to make it happen. The reason being that Cejudo said he’d likely walk away again if he won the title before defending it.
I tend to believe that we have not seen the last of the King of Cringe. Cejudo is a natural competitor and I believe that before long, he’s going to be presented with something that makes him want to compete again.