At UFC 288, Henry Cejudo fell quick in his try and reclaim the bantamweight title, shedding a break up resolution to Aljamain Sterling. Within the aftermath, Cejudo contemplated returning to retirement, earlier than finally seeming to choose chasing a battle with present prime bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili.
There’s an alternative choice obtainable to the previous champ-champ although: Flyweight champion Brandon Moreno.
After UFC 288, Moreno posted to his social media calling out Cejudo at 135 kilos, so the 2 might settle a private dispute.
As soon as buddies and coaching companions, Cejudo and Moreno had a falling out years in the past, and on The MMA Hour, Cejudo’s coach Eric Albarracin recounted the story, explaining that the meat originated with The Final Fighter season 24, and Cejudo’s position as a coach.
“Henry was dwelling in Phoenix and Brandon Moreno was dwelling with him, [in] ‘14, ‘15, ‘16,” Albarracin defined. “… He didn’t have a world title, and The Final Fighter was arising, and TUF 24, you needed to have a world title. Properly, certainly one of Henry’s first coaches was Tommy Ortiz. We referred to as him up and mentioned, can we get him a title shot? Clearly he deserved it, however we would have liked it instantly. It was the local-est promotion, nevertheless it might have been [any belt] to get on the present. So we set that up.
“[Henry] was being adopted with UFC Embedded, and I imagine it was for Demetrious Johnson, the primary one. Friday, every week earlier than the battle, and I feel Henry was slicing weight, and he didn’t need to go all the way down to Tucson. It was about two hours away and he was going to be within the nook, and the thought was, ‘Henry, should you’re in his nook and the UFC is following you, they’re going to have a spotlight of Brandon Moreno successful,’ and I instructed Brandon Moreno [to] name out Dana White — ‘Put me within the huge present!’ — and now we’ve got a spotlight on UFC Embedded. And it labored out identical to that. Henry was sick, he didn’t need to go, however I used to be like, ‘We’ve bought to go.’ He bought the world title, did the introduction.
“Brandon is the world champion from WFF MMA, however they didn’t put him on,” Albarracin continued. “He wasn’t prime 16 of the fighters. He wasn’t on the present. … So I mentioned, ‘Henry, you’ve bought clout. You’re an Olympic champion, you’re coach of the present, identical to Conor McGregor is doing proper now on The Final Fighter on ESPN+, you may put him on the present.’ And he put him on the present and so they took somebody out.”
That’s the place all the difficulty began.
The truth that the winner of the present would get a title shot in opposition to then-reigning champion Demetrious Johnson led to some distinctive guidelines for Season 24 of The Final Fighter, the large one being that the 16 rivals have been seeded forward of coaches’ picks, that means that if one coach chosen the primary total seed, the opposing coach would get the sixteenth seed by default. And that finally precipitated a giant drawback.
“They day they choose the fighters, you solely see them as soon as to coach, and then you definately’re supposed to select them,” Albarracin mentioned. “They’re ranked 1-16, however we don’t know who’s seeded. Henry desires Brandon Moreno. In my thoughts, we all know Brandon Moreno is nice, however we all know they didn’t know who he was, so I’m like, ‘No one’s going to select him first. We will get him second. Let’s get the best seed attainable. Enterprise.’ As a result of it will go should you picked 2, they get 15, should you picked 3, they get 14 and vice versa.
“[Joseph] Benavidez wins the flip, picks Tim Elliott. Fourth seed however he’s the one UFC veteran, went on to win the present. We get Kai Kara-France, twelfth seed [by default]. We get the decision. Dana White is right here with the listing, the seeds, and I can see them. So I look and it says No. 1 [Alexandre] Pantoja, and I’m like, ‘Dude, we will go get the No. 1 seed proper now, Pantoja’s obtainable.’ He’s like, ‘No, I need to choose Brandon Moreno.’ I’m like, ‘Man, business-wise, we’re going to ship the opposite man, the sixteenth seed, to the opposite aspect although. Brandon can be there, belief me.’ Enterprise-wise, if we get Brandon Moreno, who may very well be wherever from 10 to 14 we have been considering, we ship them one other excessive seed and we begin with a low seed. So we already began with 12 after which we’re going to get 13. After which they get a choose and so they choose the No. 1 seed, so they begin 1, 2, 3, 4, and we’re with 12, 13, 16. Event’s over already. So I’m like, ‘We’ve bought to select Pantoja.’ He picks Pantoja, and who do you suppose is the No. 16 seed? Moreno. Friendship’s over.
“Henry by no means went to the home. He felt so embarrassed that he didn’t choose his greatest good friend. I nonetheless really feel unhealthy about it. That’s the story.”
Pantoja and Moreno went on to compete within the first battle of the present, with Cejudo withdrawing himself from Pantoja’s nook, given his friendship with Moreno. Pantoja ended up successful the battle and making it to the semi-finals, the place he was upset by Hiromasa Ogikubo. However the story doesn’t finish there, as a result of Albarracin alleges that this was all a grand plot by the UFC to punish Cejudo for shoehorning Moreno onto the present.
“We go to the UFC that night time, we’re visitors of the present, it’s Worldwide Battle Week, and I don’t keep in mind who it was. … You recognize what they got here up and requested me? First query, ‘Did you choose Pantoja?’” Albarracin mentioned.
“They deliberate it. When you’re placing your individual man in and kicking certainly one of our guys out, you’re going to have to choose. When you’re choosing your greatest good friend, the No. 1 seed goes to the opposite aspect. should you choose the No. 1 seed, Brandon goes to the opposite aspect. They deliberate all of it alongside and so they did it on objective. UFC, they precipitated the meat. I do know they did.”
Deliberate or not, the friendship ended and Moreno went on to assist his coach on TUF, Joseph Benavidez, prepare for his battle with Cejudo on the TUF Finale. Since then the 2 haven’t interacted a lot, and finally, each have gone on to be extremely profitable. Cejudo turned solely the fourth simultaneous two-division champion in UFC historical past, whereas Moreno has since claimed the flyweight title. And whereas Cejudo is presently targeted on different issues, Albarracin says that in the future, maybe the 2 can meet once more, throughout the cage from each other. But when it does occur, Moreno could also be biting off greater than he can chew.
“When [Henry] was coaching for Demetrious Johnson, the primary time, we had 5 sparring companions for him,” Albarracin mentioned. “… However in the future, 4 of the 5 companions didn’t present up for sparring, and it was simply Henry and Brandon Moreno. And I do know that Brandon will always remember that day, as a result of Henry Cejudo put the beating of a lifetime on him.”
Moreno presently has different fish to fry. The flyweight champion has his probability to settle a special rating when he defends his title in opposition to Pantoja at UFC 290 on July 8 in Las Vegas.
