Henry Cejudo does not believe that Rose Namajunas deserves a rematch with Carla Esparza. The two put on a five round title fight at UFC 274 last weekend which has been described as the most ‘boring’ in the promotion’s history.
Speaking on The Triple C and The Schmo Show, Cejudo said that the next challenger for the strawweight title should be the winner of next month’s rematch between Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk,
“The winner of Joanna and Weili needs to fight for the championship. Rose, you just don’t deserve a rematch. Like that was so horrible. You can’t do that to my fans in Phoenix. I brought my wife over there; she was excited to see it. And yeah, for what?”
#UFC274 Official Result: Carla Esparza (@CarlaEsparza1) (49-46, 48-47) def Rose Namajunas (48-47) def by split decision.
All Fight Results ⬇️:
— UFC News (@UFCNews) May 8, 2022
Not impressed
Carla Esparza recaptured the strawweight title by beating Namajunas by split decision at UFC 274 last weekend. Cejudo was in attendance with his wife and was not impressed,
“That was absolutely terrible. It reminded me of like two people trying to do Capoeira where they literally weren’t hitting each other. The worst fight in UFC history. Not even a championship fight, the worst fight in UFC history.”
Zhang and Jedrzejczyk could not be accused of being boring. Not after their five round war at UFC 248 which will go down as one of the best fights in the promotion’s history.
The two will rematch at UFC 275 in Singapore. The fight is only scheduled for three rounds and fans who had to watch Espara and Namajunas refusing to engage for 25 minutes have expressed dismay that the two former strawweight champions won’t get longer.
Two years ago today, one of the best fights in UFC history went down between Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk 👏 pic.twitter.com/0LRTBT5DXY
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 7, 2022
Title eliminator
It still looks like a strong contender to be fight of the night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. And with Namajunas unlikely to be handed another title shot after her poor showing last weekend the winner might just be in pole position to challenge Esparza.
Cejudo certainly thinks so. He believes that the winner of next month’s strawweight bout between Zhang and Jedrzejczyk should be rewarded with a title shot.
As the former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion he knows a thing or two about titles. It will be interesting to see whether the matchmakers take the advice of ‘Triple C’ on board!
