Henry Cejudo isn’t opposed to what he views as a solid “tune-up” fight against Sean O’Malley for his return to action.
At UFC 276 this past weekend (July 2, 2022), O’Malley was tasked with his toughest opponent yet inside the Octagon. Battling No. 9-ranked Bantamweight contender, Pedro Munhoz, O’Malley found himself down 10-9 on two of the three judges’ scorecards heading into round two.
Unfortunately for both men, the action ended abruptly after an accidental eye poke rendered Munhoz unable to continue, making the bout a no-contest (watch highlights). After the bout, Cejudo interrupted O’Malley during a backstage interview telling him he “sucked” and how good of a “tune-up” fight he’d be for the former two-division champ. Well, “Triple C” continued his verbal assault on the latest episode of his podcast.
“First of all, his performance absolutely sucked,” Cejudo said on The Triple C & Schmo Show (h/t MMA Junkie). “He talks a lot. If anybody that talks — I’m proven, man. I don’t think I talk enough, to be quite honest with you.
“I just think he thinks he’s better than what he really is, and to me, that’s a problem, so I challenged him,” he continued. “I said, ‘What’s up, man? Are you ready?’ He’s like, ‘Cuh-cuh-cuh …’ I should start calling him ‘Stuttering Sean.’ He freaking tripped over his own damn words. But anyways, he doesn’t want this smoke. That would be the worst. It would be like Jake Paul facing Jon Jones. I would eat that dude alive.”
Officially back in the testing pool, Cejudo has recently been most vocal about his pursuit of big title fights with UFC’s Bantamweight and Featherweight champions, Aljamain Sterling and Alexander Volkanovski. However, the promotion has so far appeared unwilling to play ball until Cejudo gets another win in his inevitable return.
“I think that might be a good tune-up fight, but the goal for me for Sean is to get rid of him in two rounds,” Cejudo said. “Like, don’t make him go past two rounds. So that’s my goal. But he wouldn’t take the fight. Stylistically, I’m just too smart, I’m too experienced, I’m too tough, and I’m definitely too damn good-looking.
“I would take him down,” he concluded. “I would do some nasty things to him. I’d kick that front leg of his and then I’d slowly start putting my hands on him, and that’s the game plan.”
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