Henry Cejudo Expects T.J. Dillashaw Next, Looking to Renegotiate Deal with UFC
Henry Cejudo is closer than ever to his dream champion versus champion fight against bantamweight king T.J. Dillashaw.
Sources close to the situation confirmed over a week ago that the UFC was targeting a fight between Dillashaw and Cejudo for early 2019 but there were still a few roadblocks to hurdle before anything could be offered or signed. There have been rumors that the UFC may want that fight to take place in January at UFC 233 in Anaheim but again nothing has been decided at this time.
One factor standing in the way was Cejudo renegotiating his contract with the UFC following his win over 11-time defending flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson back in August. Assuming Cejudo and his management team can work out a new deal, he expects the fight with Dillashaw to happen next year.
“I still have about seven fights left but we’re going to renegotiate. I think more likely that T.J. fight might happen,” Cejudo said when speaking on the ‘Joe Rogan Podcast’. “That T.J. fight might happen if they’re going to be done with the flyweight division. I think that cat’s out of the bag and Dana had mentioned that to me. He said, ‘Hey, we’re going to take you up on that offer of you challenging for you to go up against T.J., but this is what the company has been thinking about for while.’”
One sticking point to the fight coming together is Dillashaw wanting to go down to 125-pounds to challenge Cejudo for his flyweight title rather than just defending his bantamweight title at 135 pounds.
Cejudo says he’s open to either scenario and he’s leaving that decision up to the UFC and Dillashaw to decide on the weight class.
“I think T.J. wants to come down to 125 and that’s the delay a little bit,” Cejudo said. “I like both ideas. I kind of left it up to him. I said I want to fight you, I want to fight T.J. I want to go after the next best thing and I think that’s him. Let’s do it 125 or let’s do it at 135 but let’s do it, man.”
Cejudo says in the long run he wouldn’t mind ‘dabbling’ in both the bantamweight and flyweight division as he’s currently walking around at 150 pounds so cutting down to 135 pounds would obviously be easier.
For now, Cejudo just wants to get the deal done with the UFC and then finalize a contract to face Dillashaw because there’s nothing he wants more than the opportunity to face him inside the Octagon.
“I want his head on a spike,” Cejudo said about Dillashaw. “I want to make some snake shoes out of T.J. I want snakeskin shoes, maybe a suit.”
