Former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo is back and on the hunt for his first win in years.
Cejudo is expected to face Song Yadong in the main event of UFC’s February 22nd card, per a recent report from Mike Coppinger of ESPN. The bantamweight clash will headline the promotion’s first trip to the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington, USA in over a decade.
The upcoming matchup will see Cejudo look to gain his first victory since his reign as flyweight champion concluded in 2020 due to retirement.
Cejudo was a highly successful fighter in the late 2010s, putting an end to the historic flyweight reign of Demetrious Johnson before moving up a class and capturing bantamweight gold as well. By 2020, when he defended his 135-pound title against Dominick Cruz at UFC 249, Cejudo announced his intention to retire from MMA.
Cejudo ended up only staying away from competition for three years, coming back to the bantamweight class by 2023 in hopes of another run with the title. However, he hasn’t found success in recent years.
Cejudo was immediately given a title shot upon return at UFC 288 but fell to then-bantamweight king Aljamain Sterling in a split decision result. He once again lost in another tough matchup early last year, dropping a three-round scorecard outcome to now-champion Merab Dvalishvili.
The 2008 Olympic wrestling gold medalist will now return against Song, a fighter who also is looking to bounce back from a recent defeat.
Song had a two-fight winning streak brought to a halt last March, suffering a loss across from former bantamweight champ Petr Yan. Prior to then, he had attained a pair of “Fight Night” main event wins in 2023, going deep against Ricky Simon and Chris Gutierrez to walk away with a victory.
Song is set to move up at least one spot in the bantamweight rankings with a win, going from his current spot of eighth up to Cejudo’s seventh-place position.
Former Champ Cruz To Return Against Font
Another matchup between high-profile bantamweight talents will go down in the co-main event, as Dominick Cruz will return for a three-round clash against Rob Font. News of the matchup was also first reported by ESPN.
Former UFC and WEC bantamweight champ Cruz last competed back in 2022, losing via fourth-round head kick to Marlon Vera in a “Fight Night” headliner. He had attained a pair of victories in his return run before then, getting past Pedro Munhoz and Casey Kenney.
Cruz, 39, is no stranger to shaking off ring rust. When he fought the aforementioned Cejudo for the bantamweight title in 2020, Cruz was appearing for the first time in roughly three-and-a-half years. A win this weekend could not only put him back into the UFC rankings but make him crack the top 10, as Font currently sits ninth in the class.
Long-time ranked fighter Font is coming off a decision win from October, beating Kyler Phillips. The victory put Font back on track, as a murderer’s row of opponents in recent years – including UFC Hall of Famer Jose Aldo, past flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo, and highly tested contender Cory Sandhagen – left him on a run of just one win through five fights.
Here’s an updated look at UFC Seattle, which is now up to 11 fights in total. Notable appearances lower in the lineup include Curtis Blaydes, Anthony Hernandez, and Edson Barboza.
Bout 11: Henry Cejudo (16-4) vs. Song Yadong (21-8-1) (Bantamweight)
Bout 10: Dominick Cruz (24-4) vs. Rob Font (21-8) (Bantamweight)
Bout 9: Edson Barboza (24-12) vs. Steve Garcia (17-5) (Featherweight)
Bout 8: Brendan Allen (24-6) vs. Anthony Hernandez (13-2) (Middleweight)
Bout 7: Ion Cutelaba (18-10-1) vs. Ibo Aslan (14-1) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 6: Curtis Blaydes (18-5) vs. Rizvan Kuniev (13-2-1) (Heavyweight)
Bout 5: Ketlen Vieira (14-4) vs. Macy Chiasson (10-3) (Bantamweight)
Bout 4: Adam Fugitt (10-4) vs. Islam Dulatov (11-1) (Welterweight)
Bout 3: Jean Silva (14-2) vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan (8-2) (Featherweight)
Bout 2: Modestas Bukauskas (16-6) vs. Raffael Cerqueira (11-1) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 1: Mansur Abdul-Malik (7-0) vs. Antonio Trocoli (12-5) (Middleweight)
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