Seattle, WA — Bantamweight Song Yadong heads into his biggest main event yet this Saturday, topping UFC Seattle against former double-champ Henry Cejudo.
Despite the recent losses currently dogging the “King of Cringe,” Yadong (21-8-1, 1NC) still sees Cejudo as relevant to the 135lb division.
“This is a great opportunity for me. He’s a two-division champion, Olympic champion, he has a big name. He’s a good at the microphone, he’s a promoter,” Yadong stated during Wednesday’s UFC Seattle media day, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press. “It’s an honor to fight him. Even [though] he lost two fights, look at who he lost [to]. They are champions, so he’s still in the top. I’m honored to fight him.”
Yadong has been in fight camp, he says, for months and months. He hasn’t fought since losing to Petr Yan last March, but was briefly linked to a December fight with Umar Nurmagomedov. That didn’t last as Nurmagomedov was shifted to UFC 311, when he suffered a loss in a title bid against Merab Dvalishvili. As to what happened to Yadong and Umar’s fight, “we both never signed the contract yet, I just told them I can fight and the UFC said yes,” explained Song. “Eventually they told me he got injured. I don’t know what happened. Two days later, he [signed to fight] with Merab.”
What Yadong thinks happened is that the UFC told Nurmagomedov that he could get a title shot. “I think he wanted to get a chance to be the champion, so he took the fight.”
There was also an attempt to get Song Yadong on the UFC’s return to China late last year.
“UFC was trying to get me in Macau, put me there but no one wanted to fight me there. I kept training for the fight, but until the fights finished, I didn’t have an opponent. I had to wait until right now.”
With Dvalishvili having served up the first loss of Nurmagomedov’s career, names like Sean O’Malley and Petr Yan are ahead of Yadong in line for the title. The Chinese star would like to see Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley 2, but doesn’t necessarily think it will happen next.
“For me, I want to watch Merab with O’Malley, but I think the next is going to be Merab versus Petr Yan.”
Watch the full UFC Seattle media day appearance by Song Yadong above.
