Henry Cejudo has made it very apparent that he wants to get back in the cage and has pointedly told anyone who would listen that it’s UFC President Dana White, who’s standing in his way.
In an interview with Barstool Sports, Dana explained what Cejudo must do to get a UFC fight:
“But what you’d really have to do is like pick up the phone and call & say ‘Hey, what’s the procedure I need to follow to get back into a fight? I want to unretire & when can I get back into the USADA pool? How fast? And what do I need to do?’ That’s how you get a fight.”
Cejudo (16-2 MMA), retired from the UFC in May of 2020 after beating Dominick Cruz at UFC 249. The former two-division title holder has repeatedly told the media and Dana White that he wants a shot at Alexander Volkanovski.
“Hey @danawhite give me a shot at Alex. I would never cancel. I’m Mexican and we don’t believe in pulling out of anything.” – Cejudo tweeted.
However, the UFC ultimately gave the featherweight title shot to Chan Sung Jung ‘The Korean Zombie’ (17-6 MMA) with White taking direct aim at Cejudo:
“I can tell you this: The ‘Korean Zombie’ (Chan Sung Jung) has been here fighting,” White said. “This guy’s retired. He’s been off for how many years now, and he wants to come in and fight Alexander Volkanovski? You’ve got guys like the Zombie, Josh Emmett, Giga (Chikadze) who’s fighting this weekend. You’ve got these guys that are in here doing it three times a year and working their way up. For Cejudo to retire and then just think he should be able to come in and jump into any weight division and take on the champion, it’s not how it works.”
Henry Cejudo, was not impressed and quickly reminded Dana White that he had previously done something similar with Georges St-Pierre:
“So if I had blonde hair and blue eyes or if I was a Canadian with a accent, maybe you would give it to me? I defend both my belts unlike GPS. I left on top and retired on that Monday to give the rest of the division’s a chance. You are plain out scared that I will win. @danawhite.”
After UFC Vegas 46, White let Henry Cejudo know what he thought of his “silly” antics:
“Yeah… So, I should’ve jumped over everybody and gave (the title shot) to him because all of a sudden last week he decided he isn’t retired? Come on man.” White said of Cejudo. “This is a f*cking silly conversation. Silly. If he wants to come back and try to win the title again in his weight class and then talk about moving up or doing something else (that’s one thing). But you don’t just f*cking pop up and start calling somebody names and think that you’re going to get a title shot in a different weight class. (Not) when you’ve been retired for what? Two and a half years?”
It would seem that after all the banter back and forth, Dana White has a clear message to Cejudo, to just ‘pick up the phone’ and discuss what procedures are required to unretire and get back into the UFC. Sounds pretty simple.
Do you think Henry Cejudo will call Dana White and begin the process of paving his way back to the Octagon? Or was it all just posturing on Henry’s part and he’ll remain in retirement? Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!