If you’re looking for reassurance that the UFC flyweight division will stick around, don’t look to its champion, who is talking retirement after a few more years, and seems to feel the weight class is on its way out.
If you’re a conspiracy theorist (or just paying attention), looking for evidence that the UFC is seeking to close up shop in its smallest division, look no further than the promotion’s flyweight champion. Henry Cejudo, who did the unthinkable when he dethroned Demetrious Johnson at UFC 227, appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience this week, and the champ sure doesn’t sound like he’s expecting flyweight to be around much longer.
Then again, Cejudo doesn’t sound like he’ll be around much longer either.
Speaking to Rogan (via MMA Fighting), the Olympic medalist said that the “T.J. fight might happen if they’re going to be done with the flyweight division. I think that cat’s out of the bag and Dana had mentioned that to me. He said, ‘Hey Cejudo, we’re going to take you up on that challenge for you to go up against T.J., but this is what the company has been thinking about for while.’”
Dillashaw, mind you, is campaigning to have the fight at flyweight, so he can claim two titles himself. Cejudo is open to either idea. “I kind of left it off to him. I said, ‘I don’t know but I want to fight you.’ I want to fight T.J. and I want to go after the next best thing, and I think that’s him.”
UFC 233 in Anaheim is the rumored date for the meeting of champions, though nothing is set in stone.
Cejudo, meanwhile, doesn’t plan to stay active in the sport too much longer. “I’ve accomplished everything I’ve ever wanted to in my career,” Cejudo said. “I had three goals. My number-one goal was just to be a good person, a good father, a good husband. And then after that was to be an Olympic champ and eventually a UFC champ. And I’ve done everything I’ve ever kinda set my mind to. Those were the two biggest things anyone could do. I don’t see myself fighting for [more than] maybe three or four years.”
