Former UFC bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo looked to get back to the title at UFC Seattle, but standing in his way was Song Yadong on Saturday night.
Cejudo (16-4) was coming two straight losses to current champ Merab Dvalishvili and former champ Aljamain Sterling respectively. The former champ-champ needed a decisive victory over Song Yadong to make a claim at a title shot.
Song (21-8-1) has slowly made his case to be a contender with wins over Marlon Moraes, and Ricky Simon but a win over Cejudo would cement him on the short list of contenders at 135.
Round 1 began with Cejudo employing a high-pressure game plan trying to get Song to the fence and shoot the takedown, but his opponent would not cooperate. Song fired off kicks and the very experienced Cejudo would let flurries off up top trying to land.
Song would land short counters on Cejudo as the former champ would feint takedowns. Cejudo used the round to feel out what his opponent would do with the feints. Cejudo finally shot a single leg with less than a minute in the round, but bailed and landed a left hook up top instead.
Round ended with Cejudo trying to land on Song on the fence.
Round 2 a more measure approach from Cejudo with not as many feints, but still not able to get in clean on Song. Both men threw plenty of leg kicks. Song began to have some big reactions to the takedowns.
The rest of the round was a striking chess match between the fighters. Cejudo going for a lot of calf kicks, but Song doing well to counter up top.
Round 3 the counter game continued with neither man trying to over extend their strikes. There was a break in the action just under 3 minutes left in the round with a low blow from Song.
The striking battle continued with a lot of fake single leg grabs from Cejudo. He’d go for it for a second then bail and throw heavy up top, but missed most of them. Then another foul from Song paused the action.
After a 5-minute break the action continued.
Cejudo still could not see clearly from his left eye as Song went after him. Cejudo continued to wipe it during the rest of the round.
During the break Cejudo seemed to tell his corner “I can’t f*cking see” repeatedly.
Cejudo let the doctor know he couldn’t see, told Herzog, and the fight was waved.
Official result: Song Yadong def. Henry Cejudo via Technical Decision (29-28×2, 30-27)
