Henry Cejudo Announces Retirement After UFC 323 Loss to Payton Talbott

Henry Cejudo officially announced his retirement after suffering a unanimous decision loss to Payton Talbott at UFC 323 at T-Mobile Arena.

"Payton is the future, man," Cejudo said, per ESPN's Brett Okamoto. "I was saying to him after the fight, come over and let's keep training. I want to keep mentoring him. But f--k, this is the end [for me]."

He initially revealed that he would be retiring after his fight with Talbott before the two were set to face off.

Cejudo previously retired after successfully defending his bantamweight title in 2020 before returning three years later.

The 38-year-old won a gold medal for freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Beijing Olympics before switching to MMA and making his UFC debut in 2014. Cejudo will finish his career with a record of 16-6, earning the UFC's flyweight championship by defeating Demetrious Johnson in 2018 before capturing the bantamweight title the following year to become a two-division champion.

He's just one of four fighters to ever hold two belts simultaneously.

While Cejudo's time competing in the Octagon is now over, he appears to be open to taking on a mentorship role with younger fighters moving forward.