An emotional Henry Cejudo went on the Ariel Helwani show to discuss Dillashaw’s USADA violation and what that meant for his future at 135 and 125 pounds.
Henry Cejudo is making it a habit of shocking the MMA world, first with his dethroning of former flyweight kingpin Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and then again with his 30 second starching of bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw. Or should we say former bantamweight champ, since Dillashaw recently failed a USADA test and relinquished his title. There’s been few details since then, and Henry Cejudo admitted on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show that he’s as in the dark as everyone else.
”I know exactly what the public knows,” Cejudo told Helwani. “I don’t know anything, if not I’d spill the beans. I can’t keep secrets. I just can’t. And the other thing that kind of bugged me with the UFC, I got a call from USADA, I didn’t even talk to any of the UFC officials. So I’m kinda like woah, I think everyone sees that I beat him in 32 seconds. But they don’t see the fact that this is a problem. Like, if someone ends up dying in the Octagon one of these days, our sport’s gonna get – they’re gonna ban it for good. They’re gonna take that one shot.”
Cejudo got emotional discussing the situation, even appearing to tear up at one point.
”With this whole TJ thing, it made me sad, if it’s all true,” he said. “You feel sad then you go to feeling mad, like wait, what if he’d beat you up like Brock did with Mark Hunt? Sometimes these things cross your head because this ain’t baseball, man. If it all comes out to be true, I would never feel comfortable fighting someone like that again. I hope it was an accident, I hope something happened. But if it’s true, I truly feel bad for the man. I really do. And I just would never fight him again. I don’t care for whatever amount of money, I would never fight him again.”
Cejudo confirmed that the UFC was indeed going to put together an immediate rematch at bantamweight before Dillashaw tested positive.
”Yeah that was the plan, that’s what Dana wanted, that’s what we wanted, that’s what TJ wanted. Everyone wanted the fight. It was gonna be a pretty big payday for me. That’s another place where I lose a little bit. TJ’s a big name, but if it all turns out to be true it’s going to tarnish his legacy for the rest of his career. A future Hall of Famer could now be in question.”
”I’m still kind of emotional. I hope it’s not anything crazy, but this is the last interview I want to do about it because it just bugs me.”
Cejudo went on to talk about his next opponent now that Dillashaw is out: Marlon Moraes, who he’ll face for the vacant 135 pound strap on June 8th in Chicago for UFC 238. And while he wasn’t willing to commit to facing off against the winner of a Jussier Formiga vs. Joseph Benavidez flyweight fight on the same card, he sounded confident the 125 pound division was sticking around in the UFC and that he’d defend both belts.
Just not against TJ Dillashaw, unless he manages to somehow clear his name.