Bantamweight contender Song Yadong walked away from Saturday night with a win over former two-division UFC champ Henry Cejudo, although the way he achieved the victory left much more to be desired.
An accidental pair of eye pokes from Song during the bout’s third round—simultaneously making contact with the left and right eyes of Cejudo at the same time—forced their competitive main event clash to go to a technical decision from the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington, USA this weekend.
The incredibly rare fight outcome—utilized in only some scenarios when an unintentional foul forced a fight to end—saw Song win due to his work through three rounds, out-landing Cejudo in a high-volume stand-up battle.
Prior to the stoppage, Saturday’s main event was a high-level bantamweight showdown that tested the chin of two tough contenders. Song seemingly had the edge in exchanges on the feet with Cejudo, although both fighters had to consume large amounts of tough shots to make it three rounds.
Song had the higher output of shots, connecting slightly more than Cejudo throughout the bout, per UFC’s statistics. He started with a varied attack, going after the head with punches but also eating up Cejudo’s lead leg with kicks. Later in the fight he shifted to more of a head-hunting style, swapping out the kicks for even more punches to the head of Cejudo, which ate more punches than ever in the bout’s final minutes.
Song had numerous pronounced moments in the fight, snapping back the head of Cejudo with clean blows. However, visually there was also proof on Song that he had taken a few licks along the way too. Most noticeable was the nose of Song, which became busted up in the second round due to a left hand from Cejudo.
Just over the halfway point of the third round, the trajectory of the bout changed completely when Cejudo was poked in his eyes. Seemingly concerned about the injury, Cejudo used all five minutes of recovery time available to him before resuming the fight.
Song, who also had the time to rest, came charging forward immediately after with strikes, forcing “Triple C” to backpedal until the round expired.
Heading back to his corner, Cejudo repeatedly remarked that he couldn’t see. He explained afterward that the issues were so significant that he struggled to defend the shots Song was throwing.
“I think even that last minute when he was chasing me, I couldn’t see what was thrown at me,” Cejudo said afterward.
In most cases, a fight-ending unintentional foul causes a bout to end in a no-contest. However, according to the Unified Rules of MMA, a five-round bout which surpasses the third round instead heads to a technical decision, where the bout is judged on the rounds that happened prior to the stoppage (three-round fights use a technical decision if a stoppage emerges after two rounds are completed).
It was noted on the UFC broadcast that if Cejudo said he was unable to continue during his injury time amid round three, the bout would have been ruled a no-contest. But, since he decided to continue until the third round expired, the fight instead leaned on scorecards to determine a winner.
While the victory was big for Team Alpha Male’s Song—bouncing him back from a 2024 loss to Petr Yan, adding a third UFC main event victory under his belt and likely moving him up to seventh in the bantamweight standings—the Chinese contender made it clear afterward that he wasn’t happy with the result.
“Sorry, that was totally accidental,” Song said in his post-fight interview. “The result is not what I want. I’m so sorry Henry, he’s a legend. We should run it back. We will fight again. Sorry fans!”
Despite some wondering whether a loss on Saturday could push 38-year-old Cejudo into retirement—notably due to it being his third consecutive defeat since ending his first retired stint back in 2023—-the Fight Ready MMA fighter seemed focused on continuing to compete.
When asked about a potential rematch with Song, Cejudo enthusiastically replied: “We could run it back, 100 percent.”
Main Card (9:00PM EST / 6:00PM PST) (ESPN+)
Bout 12: Song Yadong def. Henry Cejudo via Technical Decision, Unanimous
Bout 11: Anthony Hernandez def. Brendan Allen via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 10: Rob Font def. Jean Matsumoto via Decision, Split
Bout 9: Jean Silva def. Melsik Baghdasaryan via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 4:15)
Bout 8: Alonzo Menifield def. Julius Walker via Decision, Split
Preliminary Card (6:00PM EST / 3:00PM PST) (ESPN+)
Bout 7: Ion Cutelaba def. Ibo Aslan via Submission, Arm Triangle Choke (RD 1, 2:51)
Bout 6: Melquizael Costa def. Andre Fili via Submission, Guillotine Choke (RD 1, 4:30)
Bout 5: Mansur Abdul-Malik def. Nick Klein via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 3:24)
Bout 4: Ricky Simon def. Javid Basharat via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 3:58)
Bout 3: Austin Vanderford def. Nikolay Veretennikov via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 4:13)
Bout 2: Nursulton Ruziboev def. Eric McConico via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 0:33)
Bout 1: Modestas Bukauskas def. Raffael Cerqueira via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 2:12)
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