Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) flyweight champion, Henry Cejudo, who recently won gold at 135 pounds (video), is looking to become the first fighter in the history of the promotion to hold consecutive titles in three different weight classes.
That would require him to move up to 145 pounds and battle the winner of Max Holloway vs. Frankie Edgar, who are scheduled to collide for the “Blessed” belt in the UFC 240 pay-per-view (PPV) main event next month in Edmonton.
Top-ranked featherweight contender, Alexander Volkanovski, is not impressed.
“Stay in your lane, Henry, come on mate,” Volkanovski told Submission Radio. “Him coming to 145, you know, again, you gotta be quick in this division, but we’re still quick and we’re just a whole another powerful type of beast. And we’re a stacked division, a lot of very tough guys in our division that I don’t think he’ll want any of that. But maybe he’ll give it a crack, maybe UFC will let him do it. But yeah, that will change quick.”
Cejudo (15-2) already has work to do in two different divisions.
At flyweight, Joseph Benavidez and Jussier Formiga will collide at UFC on ESPN 3 in Minneapolis to determine the next title contender at 125 pounds. We also have Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan at the front of the bantamweight contender line.
Unfortunately for those aforementioned contenders, this is prize fighting and the promotion will often go with the fight it believes is the most marketable. Having Cejudo — already an Olympic gold medalist — going for his third consecutive belt might be too much to resist.