The biggest news to come out of UFC 249 is Henry Cejudo announcing his retirement. The former UFC Bantamweight Champion was coming off an excellent performance against Dominick Cruz on Saturday night, and followed up his big win with the announcement.
With the UFC Bantamweight title set to become vacant, the question is, who will challenge for the 135-pound belt? While we don’t have two official contenders, Dana White confirmed that Petr Yan will get an opportunity to become the new Bantamweight Champion (Transcript courtesy of MMA Junkie):
“It’s Petr Yan and somebody,” said, White. “We’ll get that figured out, too. We’ll make a title fight next week for the vacant title and probably do that fight as soon as possible.”
Yan is currently in the midst of a nine-fight winning streak, with his top victories coming over John Dodson (via unanimous at UFC Fight Night 145), Jimmie Rivera (via unanimous decision at UFC 238), and Urijah Fiber (via knockout at UFC 245).
Marlon Moraes and Aljamain Sterling occupy the first two spots in the top 15 rankings so it’s possible that the decision will come down to one of those bantamweights, though nothing is official. Of course, Sterling and Yan didn’t hesitate to call for a match-up for the belt following Cejudo’s retirement announcement: