UFC: Henry Cejudo feels ‘dirty’ even thinking about a TJ Dillashaw rematch after doping failure
- ‘I don’t know if I can stand next to him and do a stare-down,’ Cejudo says of former rival who tested positive for EPO
- ‘There’s nothing in my heart that I wanna fight that dude. I really don’t wanna shake hands, go out to compete and it turns out he’s on’ something
Henry Cejudo brought the “cringe” as usual to his UFC 249 virtual media day scrum in Jacksonville, Florida.
Among his best one-liners was a call-out of “French fry” heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou, and a proclamation that “we’re serving up goat” as he gets set to defend his bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz on Saturday night.
But we also got an increasingly rare glimpse into the man behind “Triple C” when a question was put to him about possibly rematching TJ Dillashaw.
“People will never know until you’re cheated on. It’s an honour to fight somebody in the Octagon. I almost feel hurt or dirty talking about TJ,” Cejudo told the media via video link.
“There’s nothing in my heart that I wanna fight that dude. I really don’t wanna shake hands, go out to compete and it turns out he’s on some ****.”
Cejudo defended the flyweight title in January 2019 against former bantamweight champion Dillashaw, who was looking to drop down and “kill” the UFC’s 125-pound division. Cejudo got a 32-second TKO on the first card of the promotion’s ESPN era.
UFC: Cejudo says ‘I’ll marry Jose Aldo’ so they can fight in US
Dillashaw later tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug EPO, earning a two-year suspension from Usada and scuppering Cejudo’s chance to come up and win the bantamweight belt from him. Cejudo went on to beat Marlon Moraes for the vacant 135-pound title.
“EPO, you can’t get tired, the same thing Lance Armstrong was on,” Cejudo added. “I don’t think I ever wanna fight that dude again, I truly mean that.
“He’s gotta get his mind right, go through the line. That’s what I feel deep inside. I don’t know if I can stand next to him and do a stare-down. I feel weird saying all those bad things.”
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