Henry Cejudo just can’t catch a break.
The former UFC Flyweight and Bantamweight Champion walked into UFC Seattle on a two-fight skid, so he desperately needed to beat Song Yadong in order to not slip further down the rankings.
Song came in strong with a flurry of striking offense, but Cejudo was able to check him with a few punches that opened up the bantamweight a bit. Then the bizarre ending happened. Song accidentally poked Cejudo in the eye early in the third round. The former two-division champion took some time and came back into the fight and finished the third round, but he just couldn’t continue in the fourth as he stated that he couldn’t see. The referee officially declared that the fight was over and the judges based the match-up on the first three rounds, which saw Song get the victory.
The bizarre part is that if Cejudo didn’t finish the third round, a point would’ve been deducted from Song and the bout would’ve ended in a DQ or no contest. The 27-year-old is fine with running it back. So is Cejudo. But Dana White has no interest in booking a rematch between these two.
“Not at all,” White told reporters during the post-fight news conference. “Not even a little bit. I just don’t want to see it again.”
Song bounces back from the loss against Petr Yan at UFC 299. Where as Cejudo's record now falls to 16 wins and 5 losses. The 38-year-old has yet to win a fight since his return in 2020.
In the co-main event, Anthony Hernandez and Brendan Allen had a rather competitive bout that ended with Hernandez getting the win via unanimous decision. Though it didn’t win fight of the night (that honor went to Alonzo Menifield vs. Julius Walker), it was a thrilling contest that helped both fighters in the long run. Hernandez now has seven consecutive wins under his belt.
Check out the official results for UFC Fight Night Seattle:
Main Card
Song Yadong def. Henry Cejudo via technical decision
Anthony Hernandez def. Brendan Allen via unanimous decision
Rob Font def. Jean Matsumoto via split decision
Jean Silva def. Melsik Baghdasaryan via first-round knockout (punches) at 4:15
Alonzo Menifield def. Julius Walker via unanimous decision
Preliminary Card
Ion Cutelaba def. Ibo Aslan via first-round submission (arm-triangle choke) at 2:51
Melquizael Costa def. Andre Fili via first-round submission (guillotine) at 4:30
Mansur Abdul-Malik def. Nick Klein via second-round TKO (punches) at 3:24
Ricky Simon def. Javid Basharat via first-round knockout (punch) at 3:15
Austin Vanderford def. Nikolay Veretennikov via second-round TKO (punches) at 4:13
Nursulton Ruziboev def. Eric McConico via second-round TKO (punches) at 0:33
Modestas Bukauskas def. Raffael Cerqueira via first-round knockout (punches) at 2:12