Le Journal

Henry Cejudo is about to step in the octagon for the final time at UFC 323, and he hopes to leave the competitive side of the sport with more strict guidelines in place for eye pokes during fights. Cejudo faces Payton Talbott at Saturday’s pay-per-view event in Las Vegas. It will be the first appearance for the former two-division champion since losing a technical decision to Song Yadong in the main event of UFC Seattle in February — a fight that went to the scorecards after Cejudo suffered a nasty eye poke from his opponent. In a year of eye pokes stopping fights prematurely, and very few penalties being dished out, Cejudo has had enough. “I think everybody needs to man up,” Cejudo said during a media scrum on Tuesday. “Dana White, the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the referees, and just make a f*cking decision, man. That’s bullshit. If we’re being warned in the back, alright, I’m going to start taking my warning, I’m going to start sticking you in the eye, too. I get a warning. Everybody just needs to f*cking man up and step up, and make this thing official.” One of the more memorable eye pokes took place in the main event of October’s UFC 321 fight card when Tom Aspinall put his heavyweight title on the line against Ciryl Gane. While the challenger was looking pretty good early on, Gane poked Aspinall in the eye that caused the bout to be stopped, and left Aspinall with injuries he’s still working through. Cejudo just wants to see things change, not just for the purity of sport and rules being in place, but to make sure other fighters in the future don’t deal with life-changing vision issues. “Dude, somebody could lose an eye,” Cejudo explained. “Bisping. I mean, how many… these dudes are deformed for life, dude. That sucks. You know what I’m saying? “It sucks, one, that it happened to me, and two, Bethe Correira, there’s a lot of people that have eye issues that you guys don’t even know about. “So it starts here, and I think it needs to be immediate. And if not, I think people need to be held accountable for that stuff. If I also lose an eye, dude, oof. Can you imagine that? ‘Oh yeah, good job. You’re a warrior.” Oh, OK. Who’s going to give me my eye back? Like everybody needs to step up. Everybody, including Dana White.“

Aljamain Sterling scored one of the biggest wins of his career when he beat T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 280, and he took some personal satisfaction from it as well. In his second defense of the bantamweight title, Sterling grounded Dillashaw in the second round and pummeled him en route to a second-round knockout. Dillashaw later revealed he entered the bout with an injured shoulder, but regardless, for Sterling this was a signature win over one of the best fighters ever to compete at 135 pounds. On the Love & War podcast with Dominick Cruz, Sterling mentioned he also enjoyed beating Dillashaw because of Dillashaw’s 2019 drug test that resulted in him being stripped of a UFC title and suspended for two years. “That was a fun one,” Sterling said of his UFC 280 win. “Because I just knew he was a cheat for a very, very long time. I’ve known from his – See, I don’t even want to say that. I don’t want to say who told me, but people from his side of where he was training was saying that he’s the one that was showing people how to do it.” Dillashaw confessed to using EPO, a prohibited substance, after the UFC’s then-drug-testing partner USADA discovered adverse findings in his submitted samples. He claimed he only ever used performance-enhancing drugs ahead of a January 2019 clash with Henry Cejudo, and subsequent testing of prior samples appeared to back up Dillashaw’s claim. Still, Sterling is convinced that the accusations publicly lobbied against Dillashaw by his former teammates at Team Alpha Male – including Cody Garbrandt, who claimed Dillashaw showed fighters at the gym how to use supplements – are enough to cast doubt on Dillashaw’s credibility. “I can’t say for sure I have hard evidence other than the fact that his former gym, and I like to think where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” Sterling said. “Even with me, even if I was disliked, I think it would be a very hard thing for someone to ever come out and say I’ve done something because I’ve never talked about doing anything, shown anybody anything, there would never be anyone who could come out their face and say that ever. “So like I said, I think where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and again, I don’t have any hard evidence. I feel like there’s been multiple people I’ve competed against that’s speculative.” Dillashaw hasn’t had too many kind things to say about Sterling, recently saying Sterling was “the weakest champion” as justification for why he took their title fight despite having a bum shoulder. So it’s not surprising Sterling isn’t pulling his punches when it comes to taking shots at Dillashaw’s reputation. In fact, Sterling’s criticism of Dillashaw seems to be tied to not just Dillashaw’s failed drug test, but how Sterling views his character. “It was just interesting that nobody had any follow-up questions,” Sterling said. “He was just like, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, sure, I showed everyone how to do it.’ And then that was it. I was like, what is this, high school? Like, you guys are not going to ask questions as the media? What do you mean he showed you guys how to do it? What exactly did he show you guys how to do? That’s all I’m saying and then this is not even including the other people that I’m talking about. “It is what it is, he passed, he passed. Only him, he can sleep at night with his conscience knowing if he actually did or not. T.J. just seems like one of those types of guys who just doesn’t give a shit anyway other than about himself. I know it’s a fight, it’s either you or him, but in terms of taking something and really damaging somebody? I don’t know, I feel like I have a little bit more of a moral ground than that. … I know the goal and objective is to hurt your opponent, but if I’m going to enhance myself to do that, I think it’s a little bit dirty.” TOP STORIES Rejoice. It’s official: Starting with UFC 324, all major numbered events are set to begin an hour earlier. Torch. Henry Cejudo has been a mentor of sorts to Payton Talbott and now they…

Payton Talbott and Henry Cejudo never thought they would be fighting each other, but now they will in—what looks to be—Cejudo’s last hurrah. Cejudo faces Talbott in a bantamweight main card matchup at UFC 323 this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Talbott admits he was a bit surprised the UFC went in this direction with the matchmaking, but there was no way he could turn it down. While Cejudo is known for having a bit of fun, and riling up his opponents during his fight weeks, Talbott says he’s ready for anything Cejudo brings in his direction since he has familiarity with the Olympic gold medalist. “We kind of know each other,” Talbott told MMA Fighting. “We’re pretty familiar, so it would take a lot to like really surprise me, I think, and I think he knows that. So we’ll see what happens because I’m pretty chill, but yeah, I don’t know. I’m also interested to see what happens during fight week.” Cejudo makes his fourth appearance since ending his first MMA retirement at UFC 249 in May 2020 following a successful bantamweight title defense against Dominick Cruz. “Triple C” ended his hiatus after three years on the sidelines, dropping a decision to then-champ Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288 in May 2023. From there, Cejudo dropped decisions to current champ Merab Dvalishvili and, most recently, Song Yadong in the main event of UFC Seattle in February. But it was prior to the fight with Dvalishvili when Talbott got to know Cejudo, and received advice from the former two-division champion that continues to stick with him. “We hung out together for a couple days straight,” Talbott said. “He gave me a lot of like career-changing advice and tried to mentor me quite a bit because, I mean, he was supposed to retire. It was leading up to his Merab fight, he was supposed to retire after that, so it was like, we’re never going to fight each other, and here we are. “He gave me a lot [of advice] actually. Without getting too specific, it was just, you know, how to structure your camp to mimic competition, in terms of mentality, what the body can take and just how important it is to have security outside of fighting — which I always knew, but he just had his whole life based around long-term security, like financial security. And he seemed to be very, very adamant about like, ‘You have no idea what’s going to come later on in life. You always need to make sure you’re good financially because everyone will try to f*ck you.’ And yeah, it takes somebody telling you that and seeing it to really know, and now I’m in a position where he was really trying to do right with by me, and he was right.” Talbott came out of Dana White’s Contender Series as a highly-touted prospect, and someone the UFC likely saw as poised for stardom. After finishing his first three opponents, Talbott began the year by taking his first career loss to Raoni Barcelos at UFC 322 in January. The 27-year-old bounced back with an impressive decision win over Felipe Lima at UFC 317 in June. A ranked opponent seemed to be in the cards, according to Talbott, who says multiple opponents turned him down. But with Cejudo saying yes, and Talbott getting an incredible litmus test so early in his career, he couldn’t be more thrilled. Not to mention, what it means to be Cejudo’s final mixed martial arts opponent. “I think it’s amazing, [and] that’s a big reason of why I took this fight,” Talbott said. “I think you’re not really gonna get an opportunity like this again, and I’m not really here to try to get the belt and pick my way up to the top. Like I just want to fight the toughest dudes and somebody like Henry is just a special person in my weight class and that kind of legacy, I’m not really going to find anywhere else right now. So I want to see what I can do in there. I want to see what I’m made of in there a little bit with a stud like that. I want to see what I got in me. “It’s an…

Katie Taylor vs. Ronda Rousey could be more than just a rumor. Following BoxingScene’s report that a bout between Taylor, a legend in boxing, and Rousey, a legend in MMA, is in the works, the publication spoke to Taylor and the 39-year-old Irishwoman confirmed there is interest on her side in making a cross-over fight happen. “[Rousey’s] an iconic figure herself in female sport,” Taylor told BoxingScene. “She has an amazing mentality. You don’t get to the position she’s in without a fantastic mind, without a fantastic mentality. “It’s just a very interesting fight. Seeing all the headlines this morning, I was thinking, ‘OK, I’m up and ready for this fight.’” Rousey, 38, has not competed in a professional fight since UFC 207 in December 2016, when she was knocked out in just 48 seconds by Amanda Nunes. It was the second straight knockout loss for Rousey, following a devastating head kick courtesy of Holly Holm, and it signaled the beginning of a major career shift. She went on to pursue acting gigs as well as successful professional wrestling run with WWE. However, she has frequently dismissed talks of a comeback, despite sparking interest with recent social media posts showing off her return to training. In her fighting prime, Rousey was a dominant force in the UFC’s bantamweight division and a consistent box office draw for the promotion. She recorded six straight title defenses from 2013-2015, defeating several of her opponents in under a minute. “Absolutely, it’s an interesting fight,” Taylor said at a WBC Convention in Thailand. “It’s a fight that will interest and capture the imagination of the fans and that’s what boxing needs. I’d be very, very happy to fight Ronda. I’m very open to these kinds of fights where all generations can sit down and watch boxing. “I’m very, very open… to fighting Ronda Rousey. Absolutely open to it, for sure.” As Rousey is to women’s MMA, Taylor is widely regarded as a pivotal figure in the rise of the popularity of women’s boxing. Taylor won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics and went on to compile a 25-1 pro record, including numerous title defenses across two divisions. She holds three decision wins over fellow boxing legend Amanda Serrano, with their past two bouts airing live on Netflix and taking place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and Madison Square Garden in New York. Rousey is yet to comment on the report, but it sounds like the gears are in motion on Taylor’s side. “[Rousey] has such a huge following,” Taylor said. “It would be an amazing privilege to step into the ring with such a legend—not just in UFC, but women’s sports as a whole. We’ll see what happens.”