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At UFC 227, Henry Cejudo ended the longtime reign of former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight champion, Demetrious Johnson, scoring a split decision win over “Mighty Mouse” in Los Angeles, California. Five months later, Cejudo defended his title for the first time by knocking out then-Bantamweight champion, T.J. Dillashaw, in just 32 seconds.
Henry was then expected to rematch Dillashaw for his 135-pound title, but after “Viper” tested hot for EPO and was suspended for two years, Henry was then lined up to face Marlon Moraes for the vacant title at UFC 238.
After two rounds of intense action, Cejudo found himself in top position with under a minute left in the third round. Seeing an opening, “The Messenger” unloaded elbow after elbow on Moraes, adding in a few hammer fists that ultimately prompted the official on duty to put an end to the action. With the win, Cejudo became the promotion’s fourth fighter to earn the title of champ-champ.
And thus “Triple C” was born.
Now, Henry will look to become the first fighter to have defended both titles as dual-division champion when he faces former 135-pound king, Dominick Cruz, in the co-main event of UFC 249, which is slated to go down on May 9, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Should Cejudo get the win, the Olympic gold medalist will have collected four straight wins against the best both the Flyweight and Bantamweight divisions has to offer, putting him on track to potentially pass Khabib Nurmagomedov and Jon Jones as the pound-for-pound best in MMA.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 249 fight card, starting with the ESPN+/Fight Pass “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on ESPN+/ESPN at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
To see the full UFC 249: “Ferguson vs Gaethje” fight card click here.