Song Yadong returned to the win column at UFC Seattle, but not how he hoped. After two-and-a-half rounds of back-and-forth action, China’s Song landed an grisly eye poke to fellow headliner Henry Cejudo that halted the action for the entire five-minute recovery period Cejudo was allotted.
Had the fight been waved off in the third frame, it would’ve likely been ruled a no contest. Instead, Cejudo finished out the final minute and change, then headed back to his corner. Between rounds, the former two-division UFC champion told his coaches and the cageside physician that he couldn’t see, bringing the contest to a premature end and resulting in a bizarre technical decision win for Song, as the Chinese bantamweight was ahead on all three scorecards at the time of the doctor’s stoppage.
“My strategy was [to] finish him in the fourth and the fifth round. I knew he would be more exhausted than me, and he knew he was going to be finished in the fourth and fifth round,” Song said Tuesday on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “That was my fault I got the eye poke. I don’t want to judge him. But the result wasn’t a win. I wanted to finish the five rounds and see what happened. But I believe I can finish him.”
The entire scene was an odd one to watch unfold, with the Seattle crowd growing increasingly restless as Cejudo bled the clock. Technical decisions are some of the rarest results in MMA, and Song admits he didn’t even know what the rules were in the situation. He expected a no contest to be the only outcome.
“I just want to fight,” Song said. “I don’t know the rule, but that was my fault, yeah.”
Song’s victory returned him to the win column after a March 2024 setback against Petr Yan, while Cejudo’s losing streak extended to three since returning from his MMA retirement in 2023.
Cejudo, 38, would’ve at least come away with a majority draw if a point had been taken from Song for the illegal — and ultimately fight-ending — maneuver. And if it had, Song wouldn’t have taken issue with it.
“It depends on the judges,” Song said of a point deduction. “If he take my points, I’m OK with that. I’m not [a] p****, I’m OK. I just want to continue the fight and face him. Everybody know I win [against] him. I won the fight. I have the ability to knock him out. He knows. I don’t care if you take my one point.”
Did Cejudo look for a way out? For Song, it’s hard to say.
“I have no idea what happened [to his eye],” Song said. “But I feel he rested for five minutes, and when he came back, I feel he can see me very clearly, he can avoid any attack. I see his eye, I watch his eye — I knew he can see me very clearly. But I don’t know, maybe not.
“I punch him, he slides left, slides right. But when I fought Cory Sandhagen, I had a broken orbital bone in one eye and the other eye was covered by blood — I still fight [for] three, four rounds until the doctor stop the fight. I didn’t want to comment on Henry, but it is what it is.
“That was actually an eye poke [I committed]. I’m not him, so I don’t want judge him,” he continued. “I don’t want to come at him. But if he [had beaten] me up for three rounds, I [don’t] think he [would’ve given] up. I think he will continue. Because in my mind, I think he knew — he knew that he’s going to get beat up in the fourth round, so that’s why he don’t want to continue. That’s my thought.”
Song, 27, maintained his ranking in the bantamweight top 10 after UFC Seattle. He’s watched the fight back and is confident he won the first three rounds, further bolstering his opinion on an impending finish.
UFC CEO Dana White quickly shut down the idea of a rematch at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. Despite that, Cejudo has repeated called to run things back. Song has a different idea instead.
“At the time [after the fight], I want to rematch with him,” Song said. “But after the interview, my coach, my teammates, they told me, ‘Don’t look back, you should go forward.’ And I heard that Dana White don’t want the rematch.
“You know what? If UFC don’t set it up, I can go to his gym and spar with him. See what it is, who is better. Seriously, yeah. He wants rematch, rematch. I’m done with that. So I can beat him? Why? It’s easy money for me. So if UFC don’t set up, I can go to his gym. Let’s go spar.”
