What's Next for Henry Cejudo?

This past weekend at UFC 288, former flyweight and bantamweight champion, Henry

Cejudo was defeated by the current bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling via split

decision in a very close battle. Cejudo, coming back from a 3 year retirement, didn’t waste

any time shaking off the cobwebs, and looked agile and sharp against a fresh, young

opponent, but came up just short in regaining his bantamweight title. This brings up the

question, what’s next for Henry Cejudo at this stage in his career? The former double champ

is now 36 years old, and as good as he looked at UFC 288, he isn’t getting any younger, so

if he wants to continue his career in the UFC, he needs to strike fast before Father Time has

a chance to catch up with him. Leading up to the fight, Cejudo told the media that if he won

the bantamweight belt, his plan would be to move up to featherweight to challenge

Alexander Volkanovski to try and make history by becoming the first ever UFC fighter to

become champion at 3 different weight classes. Now, as awesome as that would be, it now

seems to be wishful thinking, since he lost at UFC 288. This doesn’t leave him without

options though, as he’s already trying to set up a fight with the #1 contender to the

bantamweight title, and training partner of the current champion, Merab Dvalishvili.

This would be a great fight stylistically, as the two both sport some serious wrestling

backgrounds. Merab isn’t the only person in the bantamweight division that would give Henry

a great fight, and with a win, possibly lead him back into title contention. #3 ranked Cory

Sandhagen, #4 ranked Petr Yan and #5 ranked Marlon “Chito” Vera, all offer up different

fighting styles, that could give the former champ some seriously entertaining fights. The only

other option, and the least fun option out there, is for Henry to go back into retirement.

Although, it would be disappointing to see him leave a lot of amazing fight opportunities on

the table, I don’t think anyone would blame him for hanging the gloves up for good. Not to

mention the fact that he’s been doing wonders helping other active UFC fighters to train, and

coaching them to UFC championships. It seems as though Henry Cejudo has plenty of

options going forward, and really isn’t limited to anything.