Yadong Song Questions Timing of Henry Cejudo’s Retirement, UFC Return

Yadong Song believes Henry Cejudo didn’t time his career trajectory well.

Cejudo was at the peak of his career when he abruptly announced his retirement after defending his bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz at UFC 249 in 2020. At the time, there was speculation that “Triple C” made the announcement to have an edge in contract negotiations. However, things didn’t pan out as planned if Cejudo had indeed tried to do so.

The former flyweight champ ended his retirement and returned to action in 2023. Cejudo came up on the short side of split decision in a bantamweight title fight against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288 in 2023. The Olympic gold medalist followed it up with a unanimous decision loss against future champ Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 298 last year. Cejudo initially hinted at retirement in case of a loss against “The Machine” but has since changed course. While Cejudo’s losses came against arguably the two best fighters of the division, “Triple C” is undoubtedly at a crucial juncture in his career. Cejudo’s upcoming opponent, Yadong Song, believes “The Messenger” shouldn’t have retired when he did and should have stayed retired instead of returning when he did.

“I mean it’s not good time for him to come back and it wasn’t the good time for him to retire,” Song told Home of Fight.

Song and Cejudo are scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 252 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington on Feb. 22. While Yadong believes Cejudo is capable of taking him down, he trusts himself enough to get back up.

“He’s Olympic level wrestling skilled. I believe he can take me down but I don’t think he can hold me down,” Song said. “I know I can handle it. I believe my ground skills. And this fight I will try my best to knock him out and give him a lot of pressure in the cage.”