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Former UFC double-champ Henry Cejudo lost his bid to reclaim the undisputed bantamweight title at UFC 288 against Aljamain Sterling. But despite the unsuccessful endeavor, he remains in the crosshairs of another UFC champion, Brandon Moreno.
Flyweight champ “The Assassin Baby” issued his callout after the fight via social media, which immediately got “Triple C’s” attention.
Brandon Moreno lays stipulations for possible Henry Cejudo fight
During his Octagon interview with Joe Rogan, Cejudo mentioned the likelihood of going back to retirement. Moreno, however, hopes these plans would be put on hold.
“@henry_cejudo don’t retire yet,” the flyweight champion wrote on Instagram. “Please wait for me, I’m going to win my fight in July and then we can finish business, main event in Mexico City, I go to 135 lbs, fuck belts, just you and me in the octagon !!”
The 29-year-old Moreno is coming off a successful fourth fight with former champion Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 283 in January, where he won via third-round TKO and reclaiming the 125-pound title in the process. He is scheduled to meet Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 290 in July.
Henry Cejudo responds to Brandon Moreno’s callout
For his part, Cejudo has yet to make a final decision, as he intends to sit down with his wife to discuss career plans moving forward. With regards to the potential Brandon Moreno bout, he gave a mixed response.
In a nutshell, part of him wants the fight if the right deal is in place, but he also intends to stick to his original plan.
“I guess we’ll talk about it. Money talks,” he told the media during the post-fight scrum. “If the UFC wants to put it together, and there’s a nice little budget for both of us… I ain’t doing it in Mexico, though. Hell no. We can do it here in America or something like that.
“That’s the last thing that I’m thinking of. I’m after gold. My biggest thing was to, sincerely, beat Aljo, fight O’Malley, and then go after Volkanovski. If I had a close split decision with Aljo, what I had planned with Volkanovski is just like… F—k, man! It hurts me.
“That’s what burns. Not the Aljo fight. It’s the fact that… what I had already pre-meditated.”
Cejudo and Moreno used to be ‘close’ friends
Cejudo also gave a bit of a backstory of his history with Brandon Moreno, which began in 24th season of the Ultimate Fighter in 2016 where the latter was a cast member and the former was a coach.
“We were friends at one point. He even lived with me for a minute. Got him on the Ultimate Fighter show, that didn’t work out.
“He ended up training with Benavidez and we just became un-friends. But we were close at one point.”
During the presser, Henry Cejudo also agreed to the idea of a fight with Sterling’s close teammate and number-one ranked contender Merab Dvalishvili.
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