Henry Cejudo doesn’t feel discouraged by Alexander Volkanovski’s great performance against Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 this past weekend (February 11, 2023).
Outside of Adriano Martins’ lightning knockout in 2015, reigning UFC featherweight champion Volkanovski has performed better than anyone against lightweight kingpin Makhachev. Unfortunately for “The Great,” he still walked away on the wrong side of a hard-fought unanimous decision in Makhachev’s favor (see Highlights).
Volkanovski has had a big target on his back at 145 pounds since becoming the champion and fighters above and below his division had an interest in fighting him. Former flyweight and bantamweight champion Cejudo feels a little belittled as he compares their two attempts.
“So a lot of people are rejecting me now,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “Alexander Volkanovski had an incredible performance against a guy who’s never been in five rounds with someone for the first time.
“Congratulations, Alexander,” he continued. “You did a really good job. You went all five rounds and people thought you won. The problem I have is when I moved up a weight class I stopped them. There was no ruling that I was going to allow the judges to take this from me I went out there and stopped it and did what I had to do to really solidify you as a champ-champ.
Cejudo is coming back from retirement in May 2020 after beating Dominick Cruz via second-round technical knockout. Although nothing has been made official by the UFC, Cejudo has been linked with a title fight against current bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.
“Triple C” wants to reclaim what was once his, defend it, then move up to try to dethrone Volkanovski at 145 pounds. With Yair Rodriguez as the new interim featherweight champion and Volkanovski looking for a Makhachev rematch, a lot will have to line up for Cejudo to perfectly venture down this charted path.
“Sometimes people exaggerate something, and I’m guilty of that too,” Cejudo said. “Guess what, Alexander? I didn’t give you a chance. For what? Because I just thought he was bigger and too much of that wrestler would overwhelm you. I’m man enough to say, ‘Hey, Alexander Volkanovski is much better than I thought defensively.’
“Okay, he defended a few takedowns, but guess what?” He continued. “Islam is not an Olympic champion. Guess what? Islam doesn’t have my hit. Guess what? He’s not faster than me. Guess what? Yeah, he’s bigger than me, but I’m a smaller target. It’s the same reason why people are super problematic with Alex Volkanovski. He’s small, he’s got a fun size.
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