Demetrious Johnson and Henry Cejudo fought at UFC 227 with the latter claiming a split decision win that caused a lot of controversy. The flyweight title changed hands that night and the loser would ultimately end up changing promotions.
It was a pivotal moment in the careers of both men as DJ would surely never have been traded for Ben Askren if he still held the UFC flyweight title. Meanwhile Cejudo would go on to capture the bantamweight belt before having a high profile falling out with his bosses.
This week the two former opponents were reunited:
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Unusual accessories
We aren’t entirely sure what is going on here. It looks like they might be in Cejudo’s house or apartment in Arizona which begs the question of why he would have a cardboard cutout of Johnson’s face on his sofa?
The caption reads ‘look at the damn pillow’ which suggests that perhaps Cejudo has a DJ pillow on his sofa? There also appears to be a Jose Aldo pillow and a Conor McGregor pillow.
Honestly this Instagram post leaves us with more questions than answers. First and foremost we want to know what Johnson and Cejudo are doing as they don’t appear to be training together, just hanging out in the former’s house or apartment.
Going strong
Johnson is still going strong and coming off a win over Rodtang Jitmuangnon in a mixed rules fight at ONE: ‘X’. Cejudo is currently on a six fight winning streak but does not appear to have any intention of returning to the octagon.
After the win over ‘DJ’ he went on toe defeat TJ Dillashaw, Marlon Moraes and Dominick Cruz capturing the bantamweight belt in the process as well as successfully defending his flyweight title. In truth none of them posed him as many problems as Johnson did.
Both men can lay claim to being the best flyweight in the US right now. But it doesn’t look like we will ever see Cejudo inside the octagon again while Johnson is still an active ONE Championship fighter.
Attractive option
He did lose to Adriano Moraes in a title fight at ONE on TNT last year. But the two flyweights will surely get a chance to run that one back at some stage.
Promotional rivalries mean that Johnson and Cejudo can never rematch, even if the latter does come out of retirement. It is a shame because the first fight was extremely close with the winner scoring more takedowns but the loser doing the lion’s share of the damage.
Cejudo would be a very attractive option for ONE Championship if his UFC deal does eventually run down. The American has spent time in Singapore and visited Evolve MMA a few years ago.
But Cejudo’s influence as a coach is already being felt in Asia. He helped The Korean Zombie and Weili Zhang prepare for their recent UFC fights at Fight Ready in Arizona.
