Henry Cejudo, who formerly held the titles of UFC Flyweight and Bantamweight Champion, has lately given his opinion on the fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev.
The main event of UFC 284 has been the focus of a great deal of anticipation. Even with all of Volkanovski’s achievements at featherweight, it is generally recognized that he will be a significant underdog against Makhachev, who is currently on an upward trajectory.
Soon after Makhachev secured his hold on the UFC Lightweight Championship, the bout was all but officially scheduled to take place. The Dagestani phenom took Charles Oliveira to the ground with ease and finished the fight by submitting him in the main event of UFC 280 to win the vacant gold belt. Shortly after that, Khabib Nurmagomedov invited Volkanovski into the cage to engage in a brawl with Makhachev.
Cejudo is in agreement with the idea that “The Great” should be considered the underdog. On the other hand, he was unconvinced by Daniel Cormier‘s claim that a victory for Volkanovski would be the most shocking result in the history of the UFC. “Triple C” addressed Volkanovski‘s potential for becoming a double champion in a recent video that was uploaded to his channel on YouTube.
During the course of the video, Henry Cejudo was questioned regarding the possibility of ‘The Great’ becoming the most decorated double champion in the history of UFC history should he be victorious vs Makhachev. Cejudo has hinted that he could be in the race for the title, but in order to do so, he will need to keep his defences from being defeated. Only Amanda Nunes has successfully defended both of her belts while holding both of them at the same time in the UFC over the course of its history.
“He [Volkanovski] would have to defend it and I think he would out-beat [Conor] McGregor, he would out-beat Nunes, he would out-beat Cormier,” Cejudo opined.
“The only reason I say Nunes is because there’s no rankings at 145lbs… Yeah, I think it puts him [Volkanovski] second to me for the sake of look who I beat: Demetrius [Johnson], TJ [Dillashaw], Dominick [Cruz]. I beat three hall-of-famers en route to becoming double champ.”
The End of Cruz’s Reign
After defeating Dominick Cruz at UFC 241, which took place in May of 2020, Henry Cejudo’s reign as a double champion came to an end. The victory by Cruz was his only successful defense of the bantamweight title. After stepping up to the bantamweight division, he did not attempt to defend the Flyweight Championship again.
Over the past few years, “Triple C” has issued a number of challenges to Alexander Volkanovski for a fight for the featherweight championship. However, it seems like for the time being, Cejudo will be moving back up to the bantamweight level instead.
After defeating Islam Makhachev, do you think Alexander Volkanovski will become a great two-weight champion?