Continuously flirting with a potential retirement snapping return, former two-weight UFC champion, Henry ‘Triple C’ Cejudo has claimed that if he drew current flyweight dominator, Deiveson Figueiredo, a fight with the Brazilian would be like “breaking a cookie“.
Cejudo, the promotion’s former bantamweight and flyweight titleholder, called time on a gold-laden career immediately following UFC 249 last May in Jacksonville, Florida — following a second round title defence knockout win over former two-time champion, Dominick Cruz.
Vacating the flyweight championship which he had won in a rematch against incoming ONE Championship title chaser, the standout, Demetrious Johnson, Cejudo had scored a January 2019 successful title defence against T.J. Dillashaw, stopping the former two-time bantamweight best with a quickfire opening minute knockout.
Taking the vacant championship against Marlon Moraes following the two-year USADA suspension issued to Dillashaw, Cejudo drew the aforenoted, Cruz instead of former featherweight champion, Jose Aldo in his final Octagon outing.
The 34-year-old has continuously spoken about the possibility of a return to the UFC ever since his retirement from mixed martial arts, claiming recently that the ‘king’ would only return if the price was right, amid a recent face-off with minted bantamweight titleholder, Aljamain Sterling.
Speaking with Combate reporter, Evy Rodrigues during a recent interview, Cejudo detailed that he has more experience than Figueiredo, and questioned the Brazilian’s wrestling ability, before explaining how a potential showdown with the incumbent would be like “breaking a cookie“.
“Deiveson (Figueiredo) is strong, but when he goes to prepare to fight with me it will be different,” Cejudo said. “He doesn’t have wrestling, he doesn’t have the experience I have. One thing they talk about is that he has the composure and recognises the distance very well. But when you fight a guy like Demerious Johnson or fight an Olympics and win, fighting Deiveson is like breaking a cookie.“
Any potential matchup against the Para native will be put on the back burner for the time being, however, with the reigning flyweight champion set to rematch number-one contender, Brandon Moreno for the undisputed crown at UFC 263 in June, following their UFC 256 Fight of the Year contender last December.