Henry Cejudo Announces Retirement After Win vs. Dominick Cruz at UFC 249

Paul KasabianSenior ContributorMay 10, 2020

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - MAY 09: Henry Cejudo celebrates after his knockout victory over Dominick Cruz in their UFC bantamweight championship fight during the UFC 249 event at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on May 09, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

Jeff Bottari/Getty Images

UFC bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo announced his stunning retirement at the age of 33 after defeating Dominick Cruz via second-round knockout at UFC 249 on Saturday.

UFC @ufc
Triple C out. 🏆🏅🏆 @HenryCejudo #UFC249 https://t.co/9iPPLTkb1h

If his career is over, Cejudo, who defeated Cruz to defend the bantamweight belt, finishes his career with a 16-2 professional record and an incredible resume of wins:

Shaheen Al-Shatti @shaunalshatti
If this really is the end for Henry Cejudo, he goes out riding a six-fight win streak, the last four of which were: - Demetrious Johnson - T.J. Dillashaw - Marlon Moraes - Dominick Cruz Not bad, y'all. Not bad. #UFC249

However, ESPN's Ariel Helwani wondered if there was something more to the announcement:

Ariel Helwani @arielhelwani
I know Cejudo really wanted a big pay raise after beating Moraes, and he didn’t get that. That bugged him. One wonders if his announcement tonight had anything to do with that.

Cejudo is also an Olympic champion, winning gold at the 2008 Beijing Games at 55 kg in boxing.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, Cejudo and Daniel Cormier (who happened to be the UFC 249 color commentator Saturday) are the only fighters to successfully defend titles in more than than one class. Cormier did so for the heavyweight and light heavyweight belts, while Cejudo defended the bantamweight and flyweight titles.

Cejudo vacated the flyweight championship in December to focus on defending the bantamweight belt. His win over Cruz marked his second successful title defense after beating T.J. Dillashaw to retain the flyweight belt in January 2019 following a 32-second knockout.

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