Henry Cejudo and Song Yadong were both at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing fulfilling two entirely different roles. Cejudo attended as a member of Team USA, competed in the freestyle wrestling tournament and ended up winning a gold medal. Song, meanwhile, was a child from Heilongjiang helping his parents sell merchandise outside the venues.
Fast forward to 2025 and both have since become world-class mixed martial artists.
The pair, now peers, found themselves standing across from one another for a UFC Fight Night main event Saturday in Seattle. The bantamweight stars were scheduled for a 25-minute bout, however the action was called off unceremoniously after only 15 minutes when Cejudo could not continue due to an eye injury he sustained from an inadvertent eye-poke from Song in the third round.
Cejudo is a former UFC flyweight and bantamweight titleholder and was looking to snap a two-fight losing streak and make one final title run before retiring.
The 38-year-old was being outstruck through three rounds but hanging in with his 27-year-old opponent with knockout power and a penchant for high-volume striking.
Late into Round 3, though, Cejudo was fouled by the eye-poke and his vision was impaired. After taking the maximum allotted recovery time (five minutes), Cejudo said he was OK to resume fighting despite clearly still being impacted.
Cejudo fought out the remainder of the round tentatively as Song attacked. In his corner after Round 3 had concluded, Cejudo kept repeating to his coaches: “I can’t see. I cannot (expletive) see.”
The fight was officially called off prior to the start of Round 4. Referee Jason Herzog explained to both fighters and their teams following the conclusion of Round 3 that since more than half of the scheduled rounds had been completed, the fight would go to the scorecards instead of being declared a no-contest.
Song got his hand raised via technical decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) to raise his UFC record to 11-3-1 since debuting in the organization in 2017.
Both fighters expressed disappointment in the result and said to one another they’d be willing to run it back.
In other action, Anthony Hernandez surpassed Chris Weidman for most takedowns in UFC middleweight history during his unanimous-decision win over Brendan Allen in their co-main event rematch.
The pair first met in a vacant middleweight title bout under the Legacy Fight Alliance banner more than seven years ago. Hernandez won a five-round decision over Allen that night and won the three-round sequel in Seattle.
Hernandez extended his winning streak to seven after being able to take Allen down in all three rounds, accumulating control time and maintaining the dominant position throughout the majority of the 185-pound contest.
Earlier on the main card, Rob Font handed Jean Matsumoto his first professional loss when the duo went the distance in a 140-pound catchweight contest decided by split decision.
Alonzo Menifield became the first fighter to defeat UFC newcomer Julius Walker, and Jean Silva continued his rise to fame by adding another highlight finish and post-fight celebration to his record.
All seven preliminary bouts at the event ended in either a knockout or submission finish and not a single prelim even required a third round.
Saturday’s event from the Climate Pledge Arena was the first time the UFC had returned to Seattle since 2013.
