Henry Cejudo Hints At Retirement – ‘I Want To Be Able To Play With My Kids’

Henry Cejudo has suggested that his fight career may be over. 

Cejudo suffered his third consecutive loss after coming out second best against Song Yadong at UFC Seattle. The fight was marred by controversy with an eye-poke incident. The fight was stopped following the third round as Yadong caught Cejudo in the eye during an exchange. However, the fight had gone the full distance. Yadong did not suffer any penalization, which gave him a win on the scorecards.

Cejudo’s last win was in 2023 at UFC 288, as he faces questions over his future. He revealed that he sustained vision problems for numerous months after the fight. He is a two-weight UFC champion, having won belts at flyweight and bantamweight. He is also at the latter end of his career, as the 38-year-old has achieved more than what most ever will. He was clear that his focus is on his family, as he may call time on his career. 

Cejudo On His Future

“I still see double. It’s been a month and it was a little pinkie that went inside[my eye] and I’m still not 100 percent. My doctor said it would be like another month. ‘Korean Zombie’ [Chan Sung Jung] has the same symptoms, and it was the reason he had to retire. I’m seeing double. When I put my eye a certain way, I’ll see two feet.

“Luckily it’s only when I lay down or I look down, but it took me like five days for my eye to stop seeing double when I got hurt. It’s not the fact I couldn’t see, but I was seeing two people. I never really saw the sport of mixed martial arts as kind of dangerous. I talked to my wife, and I think this could potentially be my last fight. One more and that’s it… I want to be able to play with my kids. I want to be able to not f***ing lose an eye. That’s kind of how I’m feeling right now to be quite honest with you,” Cejudo said 

Other Options

Nevertheless, if Cejudo continues, there are still a few fights out there for him. The immediate one is the Yadong rematch. Prior to the eye poke, Henry was fairly competitive in the fight. He also made it to the distance even with vision problems, showing he could hang in there with his opponent.

Yadong has not ruled out a rematch, leaving the ball in their court to figure it out. Cejudo has also spoken about a fight with Petr Yan before he retires. Yan has secured consecutive wins to boost his profile again. He has beaten Yadong and Deiveson Figueiredo in his last two bouts. That ended his three-fight losing streak. If the opportunity arose, Cejudo wanted that fight. 

“I would love to get Petr Yan if we don’t run it back with Song. I would love to get Yan, but I don’t know where the UFC (stands). They’re probably pissed at me. Like, Dana probably thinks I b****ed out, and so does Hunter (Campbell). Like, they probably all think I b****ed out. I mean, I’ll be happy to have one eye and raise (my kids) but s**t, it’s better to have two than one, you know?,” Cejudo said 

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