February 22 is a huge date for the former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion, Henry Cejudo. “Triple C” made his return to the Octagon in May of 2023 after announcing that he had retired three years prior at UFC 249.
Having gone out on top as a champ-champ, the 37-year old has come up short in back-to-back fights since stepping back inside the Octagon at UFC 288. A split decision loss over five rounds to Aljamain Sterling and a further defeat to his teammate and the current bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili have doubled his career losses from two to four.
With his next fight recently being made official for Seattle at the Climate Pledge Arena next month, the oddsmakers don’t have Cejudo turning things around at this stage in his career. BetOnline.ag have him as a +160 underdog in his matchup with the #8-ranked Song Yadong.
The 27-year old Team Alpha Male fighter is coming off of a loss to Petr Yan at UFC 299 last March having beaten Ricky Simón and Chris Gutierrez in consecutive main events before that. Despite also holding victories over the likes of Marlon Vera and Marlon Moraes, beating Cejudo will certainly be the biggest win of his career in terms of name value and he’s currently at -185.
Of course, these betting lines will shift back and forth before the two men step back inside the Octagon but when you look at what Cejudo has been able to achieve in MMA and the level of opponents that he is used to facing, a loss here may be his biggest setback to date considering that his other defeats came in a close fight with Joseph Benavidez and his first encounter with flyweight great Demetrious Johnson.