Henry Cejudo (c) Vs. Dominick Cruz For The UFC Bantamweight Championship
A two-division champion, Cejudo surrendered the flyweight title to focus on the bantamweight division. He’s also a former U.S. Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and was the man to end the reign of Demetrious Johnson.
Ironically enough, the last fighter to defeat Johnson before Cejudo was Cruz, who held the bantamweight title from the WEC into the UFC. He was forced to vacate the belt due to injury, winning it back after years away. Now, these two collide for the title.
Cejudo appears to have an answer for the unusual movements of Cruz, and that is to just continue kicking him at every opportunity. The champ gets a nice takedown and defends an attempt by the challenger.
Much of the same in the second as Cejudo controls the action. Cruz with some nice offense but Cejudo drops him with a knee. The champ jumps into a flurry of strikes and this one is all over. Cejudo has defended his title against the fighter some believe to be the greatest bantamweight in MMA history.
Even more surprising was Cejudo after the fight as he announced his retirement from MMA. Ready more about that on FightLine.
Henry Cejudo def. Dominick Cruz via TKO (strikes) at 4:58 of Round 2 to remain UFC bantamweight champion
Tony Ferguson Vs. Justin Gaethje For The Interim UFC Lightweight Championship
It’s time for the main event and crowning of an interim UFC lightweight champion. Ferguson has held the belt once before, while Gaethje is a former World Series of Fighting champion.
Of course, Ferguson was scheduled to challenge Khabib Nurmagomedov for the title, but we’ve moved on from that, right? RIGHT?
As we all expected, nothing short of fireworks from the opening bell. Both Ferguson and Gaethje are looking to end this one early, taking the best each have to offer. Gaethje is bleeding from the mouth, but his offensive output was a little better than that of Ferguson in the first five minutes.
An interesting moment between rounds as Ferguson is hollering at Gaethje to “come on.” These two just love to fight and they love the intensity the other is bringing out in them right now.
Incredible back-and-forth exchanges so far, and Gaethje appears to be loving it. No matter what he throws at Ferguson, though, the former Ultimate Fighter winner just keeps coming forward wanting more.
For the better part of four rounds, this has been all Gaethje. But no matter what he has thrown at Ferguson, he won’t go away. Still, an incredible offensive performance by Gaethje in this one.
There is only so much one fighter can take, and Ferguson took it on this night. Gaethje finally strings enough together to warrant a stoppage, becoming the interim UFC lightweight champion.
Justin Gaethje def. Tony Ferguson via TKO (strikes) at 3:39 of Round 5 to become the interim UFC lightweight champion
