Henry Cejudo flirted with retirement after an eye injury suffered in a loss to Song Yadong in February, but ultimately decided to return on Dec. 8, clashing with rising prospect Payton Talbott at UFC 323.
According to his longtime friend and training partner Bruno Silva, that will most likely be Cejudo’s retirement bout.
“Bulldog” Silva stayed in Arizona for a camp with Cejudo and his team for his upcoming match with Hyun Sung Park, which goes down Saturday at UFC Vancouver, and sees Cejudo motivated for one last go inside the octagon.
“It’s probably his last fight,” Silva told MMA Fighting. “He knows it’s his last, so he’s giving his all in training. He’s very motivated. We motivate ourselves when we know it’s the last one. ‘I won’t have this no more, so I need to give my all,’ you know? To end with a victory so everyone recognizes him for who he is. He’s very motivated. He’s doing great.”
Cejudo retired from the sport in 2020 after defensing his bantamweight title with a second-round knockout over Dominick Cruz. An Olympic gold medalist and former two-division UFC titleholder, Cejudo returned to the cage three years later, but has since dropped three in a row with defeats to Aljamain Sterling, Merab Dvalishvili and Yadong.
Talbott won 10 of 11 as a professional, and the way he’s lost to Raoni Barcelos earlier this year makes Silva confident that Cejudo has a clear path to victory in Las Vegas.
“We know his flaw is in the wrestling area, the grappling,” Silva said of Talbott. “And that’s what Cejudo does best. He’s Olympic champion in wrestling. That’s the game, that’s the path, for sure.”
Silva focuses on his assignment for now, as he attempts to rebound from back-to-back stoppage defeats to Joshua Van and Manel Kape. Park was unbeaten in the sport up until his recent match with Tatsuro Taira in August, when he surrendered to a face crank in the second round.
“The Korean is tough,” Silva said. “He walks forwards and goes for the finish, but he was submitted too [laughs]. There are no easy fights in the UFC. You need to be good in order to be here, but he’s nothing different from all the ones I’ve fought over the years. It’s not like, ‘Oh, this guy is the best.’”
“I’ve lost to two contenders,” he continued. “One of them [Van] will fight for the belt now, and the other one [Kape] deserved to, but suffered an injury. I believe one of them will be champion of this division in the future, and that goes to show my level in the sport. I had close fights with both of them, but any error makes a difference in this game. One second, two inches, and it all changes.
“After everything I’ve been through in my life, this rollercoaster, going up and down, it’s just another part of my story. This is another opportunity to show my game, to show I’m at the highest level and deserve to be in the top 10. I’m going there to put on a show. I will run through this Korean and go back to the top.”
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