Sean O’Malley explains how Henry Cejudo “shot himself in the foot” with premature retirement

Sean O’Malley is explaining how Henry Cejudo ‘shot himself in the foot’ with premature retirement.

Henry Cejudo, 35, (16-2 MMA) has not stepped foot in the Octagon since May of 2020 at UFC 249, where he defeated Dominick Cruz (24-4 MMA) via knockout in round 2. It was following that bantamweight title bout that Cejudo announced his retirement from the sport. Cejudo’s career ended with six consecutive wins and the flyweight and bantamweight championships.

Over the past several months, Cejudo has had a change of heart and seemingly wants back in the game. The former dual champion has taken to calling out ‘Sugar’ (16-1 MMA), Alexander Volkanovski (25-1 MMA), Aljamain Sterling (22-3 MMA), and TJ Dillashaw (17-5 MMA) to name a few.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Sean O’Malley had this to say about an interim title fight with  ‘Tripe C’ (h/t MMAJunkie):

“Me vs. ‘Chito’ is a lot bigger than me vs. Henry. It’s weird, being all the accolades he has: He’s not a draw, and that’s the reason he left. He wasn’t getting paid what he ‘deserved,’ so he thought maybe he would leave and the UFC would want him back – and they didn’t, so now he kind of shot himself in the foot.”

Continuing O’Malley spoke about who he’d like to fight next:

“Me vs. ‘Chito’ is a bigger fight. Me vs. Cory Sandhagen’s a bigger fight. Me vs. this coffee cup would probably be a little bit bigger fight. But yeah, I’m super curious where this division’s going to go.”

So there you go, ‘Sugar’ seemingly has no interest in fighting Cejudo who he claims is ‘not a draw’ in the UFC, at least not anymore.

Sean O’Malley is currently in the number one spot of the UFC bantamweight rankings after he defeated former champion Petr Yan (16-4 MMA) at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi on October 22nd.

Do you agree with O’Malley that Cejudo ‘shot himself in the foot’ with his premature retirement or would you like to see ‘Triple C’ back in action in the Octagon in the near future?

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