Henry Cejudo is content in retirement, but there’s one fight that would convince the former two-division UFC champion to make his return.
Prior to his win over Dominick Cruz at UFC 249, Cejudo had hinted at another change in divisions while seeking a fight against featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski. Even before his latest title defense, Cejudo was already exchanging words with Volkanovski, who is expected to defend his 145-pound belt against Max Holloway in a rematch later this year.
According to Cejudo, there’s really nothing else that interests him right now in the UFC outside of that opportunity to become the first three-division champion in history.
“I’ve done everything in MMA,” Cejudo explained when speaking to TMZ. “I’m satisfied with my career. There would only be one fight that would really bring me back, that would really wake me up in the morning. That’s against other than Ryan Garcia, that would be Alexander Volkanovski, that overgrown midget.
“I would love to make him bend the knee. He’s already halfway there.”
While Cejudo joined UFC greats like Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier and Amanda Nunes when he claimed two titles in two different weight classes simultaneously, there’s never been a fighter to hold three different belts.
In fact, it’s never even been attempted.
“I want a third title because I want to be different,” Cejudo said. “There’s a lot of champ-champs. Obviously, there’s only one ‘Triple C.’ There’s only one Olympic champ, flyweight champ, bantamweight champion of the world but it’s just to cement it and go in the history books as the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time.”
Unfortunately, Cejudo might run into more than a few roadblocks with the UFC if he really wants to make that fight happen.
UFC legend Georges St-Pierre had similar designs on becoming a three-division champion after already holding belts at middleweight and welterweight. He attempted to then book a fight against reigning lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov but the UFC quickly shot down that idea because St-Pierre made it clear he would only be returning for that opportunity and probably not sticking around to defend the belt afterwards.
It’s not clear if Cejudo would be willing to face Volkanovski, and stick around should he win the belt, but it’s likely the UFC wouldn’t be interested unless those were the terms.