Henry Cejudo and Song Yadong will battle in the bantamweight main event of the next UFC Fight Night, set for the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington, on the morning of Sunday 23 February 2025.
Cejudo (16-4), a former flyweight and bantamweight champion, is looking to avoid a hat-trick of defeats, having been beaten on decision by Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili in his last two trips to the Octagon in 2023 and 2024.
However, ‘The Messenger’ remains confident of victory: “You guys can witness a damn assassination, man. You guys are going to witness a live assassination. Song Yadong you ain’t that long,” said the 38-year-old.
Cejudo added, “Camp has been good, man. Different training regimens and adding science stuff to help out my cardio and doing my best to stay injury free.”
Song (21-8-1, 1 NC) is also aiming to bounce back from a defeat, having gone down by unanimous decision to Petr Yan just under a year ago.
The 27-year-old ‘Kung Fu Kid’ is confident of victory over Cejudo, having marked out the former champion as a scalp he wants to claim in his career.
“He’s a very good wrestler, he’s an Olympic-level wrestling skilled,” Song noted. “I believe he can take me down, but I don’t think he can hold me down. I know I can handle it. I believe in my ground skills.
“And this fight, I will try my best to knock him out and give him a lot of pressure in the cage. I like five rounds. Five rounds gives me more time and experience and suffering for him. I will knock him out in the early rounds or beat him by decision, but I will win the fight. I believe in myself.”
The rest of the main card features a middleweight match pitting Brendan Allen against Anthony Hernandez; Jean Silva faces Melsik Baghdasaryan in a featherweight fight; a bantamweight battle sees Rob Font face Dominick Cruz; Edson Barboza tackles Steve Garcia in the featherweight division; and two light heavyweight fights pit Ion Cutelaba and Alonzo Menifeild against Ibo Aslan and Julius Walker respectively.
UFC Fight Night: Cejudo v Song main card
- Main event: Bantamweight: Henry Cejudo v Song Yadong
- Middleweight: Brendan Allen v Anthony Hernandez
- Featherweight: Jean Silva v Melsik Baghdasaryan
- Bantamweight: Rob Font v Dominick Cruz
- Featherweight: Edson Barboza v Steve Garcia
- Light heavyweight: Ion Cutelaba v Ibo Aslan
- Light heavyweight: Alonzo Menifeild v Julius Walker