Askren Mocks Cejudo's Gas Tank After RAF Collapse

Henry Cejudo led 8-0 and still lost, as Ben Askren has his thoughts.

Cejudo faced former UFC rival Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of RAF Georgia earlier this month and was dominant through the early going, building a substantial lead before the wheels came off. Dvalishvili, whose cardio has been a defining feature of his entire combat sports career, ground him down in the later periods and earned a decision win. The collapse was striking given how commanding Cejudo had looked.

Askren, who made his own return to competition in RAF earlier this month following a lung transplant, addressed the situation with the directness he has always brought to his commentary.

"I will say — and I would say this to Henry, I haven't spoken to him — but man, I had a lung transplant so I think I've got an excuse for getting really tired, but my man got really tired," Askren said. "He needs to have a good excuse for that because he got so tired he was having a hard time standing on his feet in the third period. But you've got to get a few sessions in. You're going to agree to wrestle; you've got to get in there and train a little bit. He was as elite as it gets,” Askren

The comparison Askren is drawing is pointed and deliberate. He came back from major surgery that fundamentally altered his respiratory capacity and still put in the preparation required to compete. Cejudo is an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, a former UFC double champion, and one of the most decorated wrestlers in American MMA history.

The performance gap between his conditioning and Dvalishvili's in the closing periods of the match was significant enough that Askren had a hypothesis about what happened.

"I think, here's my guess, Henry says, 'I don't need to train. I'm an Olympic champion. I'm going to go put him away.' And he did, in fact, almost put him away,” Askren

Cejudo has had an uneven run in RAF since announcing his retirement from MMA at UFC 323. The format suits his wrestling background on paper, but the pipeline to consistently competitive results has proved less reliable than his credentials would suggest. Dvalishvili, who is still active in the UFC, brought a conditioning advantage that no amount of Olympic pedigree can overcome without proper preparation.