Petr Yan chides Henry Cejudo for calling out fighters riding losses

Petr Yan took to social media to criticize UFC bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo for calling out fighters coming off of a loss.

Cejudo said this week that he is targeting fights against aging legends Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz, both of whom are coming off of a loss in their last bout. Cruz’s last fight was a decision loss to Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207 in December 2016, while Edgar was knocked out by The Korean Zombie at UFC Busan in December 2019. Cejudo was also set to fight Jose Aldo — who was coming off of a loss to Marlon Moraes at UFC 250 — before Aldo was removed from the card due to travel restrictions. Yan noticed that Cejudo has only been calling out fighters coming off of losses and decided to take a shot at the champ.

On Tuesday, Yan took to Twitter to rip the champ for calling out these aging legends who haven’t won a fight in a while. Here’s what he wrote.

How about fighting someone who’s not coming off a loss? 🤦🏻‍♂️ https://t.co/G15OZTLQcK

— Petr “No Mercy” Yan (@PetrYanUFC) April 14, 2020

“How about fighting someone who’s not coming off of a loss?”

The criticism from Yan is fair. In most sports, you need to win to get a shot at the championship. That’s usually the way things go in mixed martial arts, though the UFC has been known to buck the trend from time to time and give a fighter coming off of a loss a title shot.

When Aldo was booked against Cejudo, most fans were okay with it because many felt he should have got the judges’ nod over Moraes and the card was set to take place in Brazil. But now that Cejudo is calling out Edgar and Cruz instead of fighters on win streaks like Yan, Aljamain Sterling or Cory Sandhagen, the optics are beginning to look very strange.

Do you agree with the criticism from Petr Yan to Henry Cejudo?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/14/2020.