Henry Cejudo believes flyweight division is in a ‘scary’ state
Henry Cejudo believed he was fighting for the entire flyweight division two weeks ago.
He was taking on bantamweight champion, TJ Dillashaw in which Dillashaw was looking to become the next champ-champ. No doubt, if Dillashaw had won, the flyweight division would have been shut down. Even though Cejudo beat Dillashaw, the question still lingers of what the future of the flyweight division holds.
“If you look at 125 right now, they just cut Dustin Ortiz,” Cejudo told MMAjunkie. “This guy just had what could have been a split decision win to (Joseph) Benavidez. These are the top guys in the world. You’re going to cut the No. 3 or No. 4 guy in the world? That just tells you where these guys’ heads are at. It’s unfortunate. I’m trying to do my best, but at the same time, I’m not going to have a belt with nobody in my weight class. You got rid of Ortiz, you got rid of Matheus Nicolau, these great guys. I don’t know who else they got rid of. There’s probably only about 10 of us left. So it sucks, it’s scary.”
Ortiz lost to Joseph Benavidez that same night and it wasn’t revealed he was cut until Cejudo said that. Meaning, flyweights are continuing to be cut if they are coming off of a loss. So, it very well could come down to a mini-tournament with the UFC holding occasional flyweight fights with the loser getting cut and so on and so forth until there is just one left.
For Cejudo, he is quite disappointed with that because he believes he can be a legitimate superstar if the UFC promotes him correctly.
“I think the UFC, they’re kind of weeding people out,” Cejudo said. “By the time I look back there’s nobody. It has nothing to do with me. I’m doing my job, I’m fighting for the flyweight division. I said it. I tried to do a negotiation deal with Dana White on national television. He wouldn’t do it. I think that’s a question you would have to ask the boss and his people, I feel like I resurrected this division. I speak three languages, I’m pretty handsome myself. I’m aight.”
In the end, the flyweight division is not looking good even though Cejudo believed he saved it.
