UFC bantamweight fighter "Sugar" Sean O'Malley believes former double champion Henry "Triple C" Cejudo will not return to fighting after withdrawing from his UFC 292 bout against Marlon Vera on August 19.
O'Malley, currently ranked #13 in the division, is adamant that the biggest reason might be because Cejudo's attempt at a comeback was met with little interest from fans.
"I think this, Henry is done for good. He is done, he is retired, he is not coming back," said O'Malley on the Timbo Sugar Show podcast.
"He tried to come back, and no one really cared. He got paid a little bit of money. A shoulder injury, so that must have been pretty bad that he couldn't fight. Dude, and he's already 36, right? Something like that, you know."
Cejudo is widely regarded as one of the greatest combat sports athletes of all time. He won Olympic gold in freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and had a successful career in MMA with a 16-3 record.
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He later took home the UFC flyweight championship in 2018 and added the bantamweight championship to his resume in 2019.
However, he shocked the MMA world when he announced his retirement immediately after his victory over Dominick Cruz at UFC 249 in May 2020.
At one point, O'Malley was a potential foe that Cejudo had in mind. While the two men don't necessarily have a genuine hatred for one another, they certainly don't get along, and a matchup between them was first brought up when Cejudo interrupted his rival's backstage interview at UFC 276.
Cejudo claimed that O'Malley would've been a tune-up fight. The missed opportunity for a match between them was mentioned again after Aljamain Sterling defeated Cejudo at UFC 288, with O'Malley saying at the post-fight press conference that he would have preferred it if Triple C had won, as it would have set up a fight between them.
Unfortunate comeback
In May of this year, Cejudo returned from retirement to challenge Sterling for the bantamweight championship but lost by a split decision. After the loss, he was adamant he wanted to fight again and called out Merab Dvalishvili.
He got booked at UFC 292 against Vera but, unfortunately, was forced out of the scrap due to a shoulder injury.
With Cejudo having to pull out of the fight, O'Malley predicts Cejudo will focus on his recovery and won't be interested in climbing up the ranks again.
However, O'Malley's coach Tim Welch expressed his belief that Cejudo wasn't truly done as a fighter and that there was still an opportunity for Triple C and Sugar to lock horns in the cage.
Vera has also shared his thoughts on the situation. The fighter expressed disappointment but said he would remain focused on his career.
"I'm here to fight whoever they put in front of me," he said.
Despite O'Malley's belief that Cejudo will decide to hang up the gloves for good, the fighter has not yet officially announced his retirement from the sport.
