Dominick Cruz questions UFC matchmakers putting him on the same card as Henry Cejudo.
Cruz (24-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) returns from an over two-year long layoff to face Rob Font (21-8 MMA, 11-7 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 252 co-main event Feb. 22 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Headlining the event is Henry Cejudo (16-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC), who meets Song Yadong (21-8-1 MMA, 10-3-1 UFC).
Cruz preferred running things back with Cejudo, who finished him by TKO in their bantamweight title fight at UFC 249 in May 2020. The former champion says UFC matchmakers told him Cejudo wasn’t interested, despite “Triple C” previously saying he was open to it.
“I would have rather had a rematch, to be honest, with somebody that I have history and a story with like Henry,” Cruz said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I believe that was a really good fight to have. But on one end, you’ve got Sean Shelby saying, ‘Henry won’t take it.’ And then when you talk to (Cejudo’s manager) Ali (Abdelaziz), you’ve got Ali saying, ‘Oh, Shelby didn’t want to make it. They like to put old guys with old guys. You know how it is, Dom.’ So you start hearing two sides of the story from both guys, and you never hear from the fighter themselves.
“After a while, you’ve just got to take the opportunities that are given. That’s what the UFC offered me, so I took it. I mean, UFC isn’t going to try to give me some kind of ‘because they like me’ fight or something. I don’t think that exists for very many people. Unless you’re Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones, where you bring in a certain amount of eyes, I think then they’ll work with you. But other than that, you just kind of get thrown to the wolves in the UFC.”
Not only did Cruz not run things back with Cejudo, but he ended up on the same card.
“I don’t know, I don’t think (UFC matchmakers) care enough about me or Henry to try to annoy us, to be honest,” Cruz said. “But I think that it’s a good way to create turmoil, right? And this is a drama-based sport. Shelby goes, ‘I didn’t do that on purpose.’
“It’s hard for me to believe that, but who cares? It is what it is. It’s out of my control. When I asked who was the main event, he goes, ‘I don’t know, we’re working on it,’ and then one day later it’s (Cejudo vs. Song). Come on, man – you knew exactly what’s going on.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 252.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dominick Cruz preferred Henry Cejudo rematch, settles for sharing UFC Seattle card
