News Henry Cejudo announces he will “100 percent” retire if he loses against Merab this weekend

[Levi_]

Cejudo two weeks after losing to Merab.

This. It may be 100% that he will retire, but the percentage drops significantly when it comes to staying retired.

Kind of like the old school rock bands announcing their 'final' tour- it never turns out to be the final tour. Kiss and the Who had about a dozen farewell tours.

 

[Siver!]

He never should have retired the first time probably. Sitting out does nobody any good.

To be fair, it does you a lot of good if your heart isn't in it.

It's not exactly the kind of job where you can go to work half-assed and just churn something out lol

 

[austinblair]

Doesn’t wanna be DP. I get it.

 

[Neck&Neck]

Cool

 

[PeterGriffin]

I can't wait to watch him lose and never fight again.

 

[kingofthecans]

A person can only hope, but his words are hollow and meaningless.

 

[VinceArch]

Well we'll see how this goes.

 

[Kevin Sorbo]

…again.

I still think it’s too bad that a “cheat code” to stardom and legacy is one fight in a higher division.

Then again, maybe he knew for a fact he would never overtake DJ for divisional GOAT….

The guy seems to know what he’s doing to live a happy life. Good on him. But if he’d kept fighting (and winning) he would probably be considered one of the ATG’s by now.

I would say he still should be considered an ATG. Sure, he's not like top 10 all time but if were making a list of great fighters he would still rank pretty high. What he did in such a short timespan is pretty crazy and the fact he was a double UFC champ and Olympic gold medalist makes his overall combat sports resume one of the most impressive ever.

 

[kingmob6]

I'm looking forward to this fight even more now. The wrestling aspect here will be a dandy to watch, who wins out? An olympic gold medalist or a younger fighter that only wins fights via spam wrestling

 

[Substance Abuse]

I don't really care...

 

[RonDante]

It will ultimately come down to who has the better mma wrestling and who has the better gas tank. We already know Merab has more gas, we will find out if he can outwrestle the Olympic gold medalist.

He doesn’t need to, just needs to push him against the fence

 

[ComeChooDaddy]

Even if he wins he should retire. He did ok in the UFC.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

I aint happy until quadriple C

 

[linvillegorge]

It sucks that he spent the tail end of his prime sitting on the sidelines barking. He's a helluva fighter. Weird dude though.

 

[Dr Fong]

Agreed. He had his run and did pretty damn well overall. Beat Mighty mouse (albeit very close fight) and stanky legged Dillashaw to Bolivian.

He has a pretty suspect resume for a 2x division champ.

He won the 125 belt off a fight he lost. Then got to defend it against an anorexic AIDS patient who had no business fighting at that weight class.

Then wins a vacant title vs a guy about to embark on a 1-7 run that many think is 0-8. Then got to defend it against an elderly cripple who had no business getting a title shot.

He got extremely lucky in his title runs. A Merab victory at this late stage of his career would add a lot of real depth to his resume.

 

[Goutfather]

I would say he still should be considered an ATG. Sure, he's not like top 10 all time but if we’re making a list of great fighters he would still rank pretty high. What he did in such a short timespan is pretty crazy and the fact he was a double UFC champ and Olympic gold medalist makes his overall combat sports resume one of the most impressive ever.

ehhh. his claim to atg status is that he had 2 ufc titles. a title is only meaningful if (a) you beat everyone before you got it, or (2) you defended it multiple times after you got it. henry’s gold medal falls into the former category. but his ufc titles don’t rate highly for either category. it’s good for him in terms of his personal quest for glory, but reality is henry’s title fight history amounts to 4 victories and 2 losses, in 2 weight classes.

 

[Pierced7681]

He doesn’t need to, just needs to push him against the fence

Thats part of mma wrestling, you think they have cages in amateur wrestling?

 

[RonDante]

Thats part of mma wrestling, you think they have cages in amateur wrestling?

I was thinking in terms of mat wrestling like cejudo is used to

 

[StewDogg11]

Stylistically probably the worst fight at BW possible.
We’ll see how much he wants it because this kind of mindset is going to be facing the outrageous pace of Merab and without the KO power to back him off he’s going to need to dig deep to win…. Unless he just absolutely schools Merab wrestling.

Marlon Moraes nearly got Merab out of there not long ago but gassed himself out in typical Moraes fashion going for the finish. I could definitely see a KO/TKO for Cejudo here but Merab probably wins yet another decision in a fight where he shoots 37 takedowns and completes 2 of them.

 

[RonDante]

Marlon Moraes nearly got Merab out of there not long ago but gassed himself out in typical Moraes fashion going for the finish. I could definitely see a KO/TKO for Cejudo here but Merab probably wins yet another decision in a fight where he shoots 37 takedowns and completes 2 of them.

Moraes was very fast twitch though with great speed and power for as long as it would last. Cejudo can’t claim the same attributes, maybe in his prime but definitely not now