Watching Cejudo fight in Seattle over the weekend was meant to be another chance for a guy that almost everyone loves who at one point in time was a two-division world-champion. Lately though, things just haven't been going his way and this weekend was no exception.
The match was going extremely well, with Song Yadong looking as though he was on the path to victory anyway as he was outstriking Henry and stuffing all of his takedown attempts as well. Cejudo is no slouch, but when I was watching this, it really appeared as though Cejudo simply didn't have any answers for the fight that was not going in his favor. I like the guy, don't get me wrong, but I think that anyone who is being objective could see that barring some sort of a dramatic shift in tactics, that Yadong was going to emerge victorious.
Towards the end of the 3rd round though, a couple of illegal, yet apparently unintentional actions took place including a really horrible eye-poke
When this happens, it is largely up to the official what is going to happen here: In this case Herzog (one of the better officials IMO) gave Cejudo the allotted 5 minutes to recover, which Cejudo rightfully took all of. They then finished the round because Henry declared he was ok. In other situations I have seen ring doctors come to make sure that the fighter actually IS ok, but in this situation that is not what happened.
Instead, Henry was talking to his corner and talking about how he cannot see out of one of his eyes and got seen by a ring doctor. Rules are rules though, and Cejudo insisted he could continue the fight. The fight was stopped shortly into the 4th round and then they had to go to the scorecards to declare a winner because that is what the rules are in a 5 round match that has already passed the 3 round mark.
The scorecards were, unsurprisingly, in Song Yadong's favor, with him winning all of the first 3 rounds and therefore was declared the victor.
There is absolutely zero reason to hate on Song Yadong for how this all panned out. Eye pokes, unless you are Jon Jones, are almost always an accident and it is because of the open finger nature of the gloves that this happens at all. The sport would have very little grappling ability if the gloves were closed, and since everyone is looking to defend against takedowns, especially if you are facing a take-down specialist like Cejudo at all times. I say this as someone that long ago participated in sanctioned MMA events as a fighter: It is far more likely that you will be taken down if your hands are clenched in a fist. Why? I don't really know exactly, but that is just the way it is.
Song Yadong apologized to the crowd during the post-fight interview, and proclaimed that the eye-poke was completely unintentional - and I believe him and so should you. He also said right then and there that there should be and would be if it is up to him, a rematch so they can run this one back properly.
I have a lot of respect for both of these men because they stay out of the dramatic side of things as far as promotion is concerned and instead rely on their in-ring talent to do all the talking for them. This likely makes their paychecks smaller but I appreciate the authenticity of both of them, and the respect that they have for their fellow fighters.
One thing you really need to give props for to Henry Cejudo, is that technically, he could have demanded to be seen by a ring doctor during the 5-minute break for the eye-poke and then the fight would have been terminated and Cejudo would have been declared the winner by disqualification. Those sorts of victories are reserved for jackasses like Aljamain Sterling though, and it is part of the reason why he is one of the most hated fighters in the sport today.
Henry didn't want to win like that.. Song didn't want to win like this either and we need to recognize how much respect both of these men deserve for the way they both handled this.
The good news for them is that this incident is garnering a lot of attention for their sportsmanship and now the rematch will almost certainly be on a real pay-per-view ticket with much bigger purse-payouts instead of some minor event in Seattle.