Henry Cejudo says that this weekend will be his last-ever time fighting inside a UFC cage.
The former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion said Tuesday that he plans to retire from competition following his fight this weekend against Payton Talbott at UFC 323 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“This is it for me, guys,” Cejudo said during a media scrum captured by MMA Junkie. “This is it for me, unless Dana [White] wants me to, unless it’s a really big fight with some other Mexican, you know, then I’d be willing to do it. But, other than that, I think I’ve done everything at the highest level since I was 11 years old, from cutting weight at that damn time. There’s just a lot of satisfaction in my life. I’m ready to move on, too. I have a couple of kids that want to play with their dad 24/7.”
38-year-old Cejudo had a decorated freestyle wrestling career in the 2000s, winning a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics for the 55 kg class.
Cejudo parlayed his wrestling success into a lengthy MMA career, debuting on the UFC roster in his seventh pro fight by 2014. He avenged a loss to all-time flyweight king Demetrious Johnson with a close split decision in 2018, ending one of the longest title reigns in the company’s history.
After finding success at flyweight, Cejudo moved up to bantamweight by 2019, defeating Marlon Moraes to win the vacant belt. The victory made him one of four simultaneous two-division champions in UFC history. He defended the 135-pound title once against Dominick Cruz in 2020 before announcing his first retirement from the sport.
Cejudo would return three years later, but no longer see the same type of results that he once produced against the sport’s top names. He enters this weekend following three consecutive losses, dropping bouts to Song Yadong, current champ Merab Dvalishvili and former champ Aljamain Sterling in recent years.
“Triple C” is listed as an underdog against Talbott, a 27-year-old prospect who bounced back from his sole pro loss earlier this year by defeating former OKTAGON champ Felipe Lima.
