Dana White responds after Henry Cejudo implies he is being blackballed: “You don’t just f*cking pop up and start calling somebody names”

UFC President Dana White has responded after former champion Henry Cejudo implied that he is being blackballed by the promotion.

Cejudo (16-2 MMA), a former two-division title holder, retired from MMA after defending his bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz at UFC 249 in May of 2020.

However, after Max Holloway was forced to withdraw from his scheduled trilogy fight with Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 272, ‘Triple C’ quickly offered up his services to Dana White and company.

“Hey @danawhite give me a shot at Alex. I would never cancel. I’m Mexican and we don’t believe in pulling out of anything.” – Cejudo tweeted.

Despite Henry’s interest, the UFC ultimately gave the featherweight title shot to The Korean Zombie. The UFC boss offered the following explanation on the promotions decision to BT Sport.

“I can tell you this: The ‘Korean Zombie’ (Chan Sung Jung) has been here fighting,” White said. “This guy’s retired. He’s been off for how many years now, and he wants to come in and fight Alexander Volkanovski? You’ve got guys like the Zombie, Josh Emmett, Giga (Chikadze) who’s fighting this weekend. You’ve got these guys that are in here doing it three times a year and working their way up. For Cejudo to retire and then just think he should be able to come in and jump into any weight division and take on the champion, it’s not how it works.”

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Those remarks did not sit well with Henry Cejudo, who quickly reminded Dana White that he had previously done something similar with Georges St-Pierre.

“So if I had blonde hair and blue eyes or if I was a Canadian with a accent, maybe you would give it to me? I defend both my belts unlike GPS. I left on top and retired on that Monday to give the rest of the division’s a chance. You are plain out scared that I will win. @danawhite.”

During last night’s UFC Vegas 46 post-fight press conference, Dana White responded to Henry Cejudo’s “silly” antics.

“Yeah… So, I should’ve jumped over everybody and gave (the title shot) to him because all of a sudden last week he decided he isn’t retired? Come on man.” White said of Cejudo. “This is a f*cking silly conversation. Silly. If he wants to come back and try to win the title again in his weight class and then talk about moving up or doing something else (that’s one thing). But you don’t just f*cking pop up and start calling somebody names and think that you’re going to get a title shot in a different weight class. (Not) when you’ve been retired for what? Two and a half years?”

It should be noted that Henry Cejudo is not currently enrolled in the USADA testing pool, and thus would not be eligible to compete in a short-notice fight.