Song Yadong is back for arguably his biggest UFC main event yet on Saturday when he faces former two-division champion Henry Cejudo in the promotion’s return to Seattle, Washington.
UFC Seattle marks the fourth appearance as a headliner for China’s Song. Cejudo, 38, is still seeking his first win since returning from a three-year retirement in May 2023, however Song, 27, fully intends to send the Olympic gold medalist back into retirement for good with their bantamweight tilt.
“I believe I will make him retire off this one,” Song said told Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “It’s going to be once I beat [him] up.
“He’s funny. He likes to promote the fight, talk a lot trash. But I like him and I respect him. He’s a legend.”
Nearly one full year has passed since Song last fought. Like Cejudo, Song also looks to rebound off a loss after a unanimous decision defeat to Petr Yan snapped a two-fight win streak this past March.
Similarly, by the time Saturday rolls around, 370 days will have passed since Cejudo’s most recent UFC bout, which saw him fall short against the now-champion Merab Dvalishvili in a one-sided decision.
Cejudo’s bread and butter has always been his vaunted wrestling game. That didn’t change after his time away, as he leaned on it in both of his past two outings.
Although Cejudo was unsuccessful in his comeback fights against Dvalishvili and former champion Aljamain Sterling, Song expects “Triple C” to bring a similar game plan to the cage for UFC Seattle.
“I believe he’s going to try to wrestle me,” Song said. “I don’t believe he will stand [and] fight with me.”
Song’s own hiatus wasn’t intentional. He claims to have been ready to go as early as this past August. Rumors initially swirled about a potential fight with Umar Nurmagomedov, but the pairing didn’t materialize and Nurmagomedov instead challenged Dvalishili for the UFC bantamweight title in January.
According to Song, though, there was some actual fire to go with that smoke — at least on his end.
“UFC offered me to fight December, but I [had] just recovered [from] my shoulder injury,” Song said of the Nurmagomedov whispers. “I didn’t have enough time to prepare, almost just five weeks. I didn’t have enough time. I said, ‘I can fight in January,’ so UFC said yes. They told me [Nurmagomedov] probably can fight in January. [I was] waiting [for] that. So eventually [UFC] told me Umar got injured, they can’t fight, he can’t fight — and two days later, he and Merab’s fight [was announced for UFC 311].
“That was interesting. I have no idea what happened. [Nurmagomedov] is weird.”
After all the turmoil of the negotiations, Song landed his UFC Seattle headliner with ex-champ Cejudo.
He’s kept an eye on the division, though, and watched Nurmagomedov lose a unanimous decision against Dvalishvili when the two face off. Despite his personal feelings regarding their would-be matchup, Song still expected to see Nurmagomedov emerge victorious in the Dagestan native’s first UFC title shot.
“I’m surprised,” Song acknowledged of Dvalishvili’s win.
“I believed Umar [could] win the fight because he can wrestle, he has better jiu-jitsu. But I think he got hand injury in the first round or second round, but this is MMA, anything can happen.”
