Henry Cejudo defends “great stoppage” in TJ Dillashaw fight

Henry Cejudo needed just 32 seconds to defend his UFC flyweight title against UFC bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw in Saturday night’s UFC Brooklyn main event. Unfortunately for him, some members of the MMA community — Dillashaw and UFC President Dana White included — feel the referee intervened a little too early in this fight.

Despite this controversy, Henry Cejudo says he is fine with the stoppage. In fact, he considers it a “great” stoppage.

“It was a great stoppage because I felt his body go limp,” Cejudo said at the UFC Brooklyn post-fight press conference (transcript via MMA Fighting). “You guys have to understand I weighed in at 146 pounds when I fought him. Strong, and you could see it. Every blow that he took, he was eating some hammers. Personally, I thought it was a good stoppage because he was going to take another 10, 20 hits.

“When your body goes limp like that, when you cut weight like that, thinking you’re gonna go out there and just take my belt from me, that’s not the way it works. So I think it was a great stoppage. This is why MMA is sanctioned now because of refs. If I was to talk to that ref, ‘You’re okay, man. We were both in there. We saw him go limp a few times.’ Watch it again and you’ll see it.”

“I think partially what makes TJ good is the fact that he is a sore loser. So am I. But you know what, at least I’m able to accept it and get better from it.

“I saw he was hurt since the beginning, I thought it was that kick that really kind of rattled him. I’m going to have to re-watch that fight, but I could tell, I saw him going limp, I saw his body changing. I shoved him down. If you shove somebody down, they’re hurt. If I do this to you and you’re just (acts dazed), come on.”

What do you think of these comments from Henry Cejudo?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 1/20/2019.