Henry Cejudo is still feeling the effects of his Feb. 22 fight with Song Yadong. The UFC Fight Night main event reached a disappointing conclusion after Cejudo was eye poked. Five weeks later, Cejudo’s eye troubles have changed his perception of mixed martial arts’ dangers.
“I never really saw the sport of mixed martial arts as kind of dangerous,” Cejudo told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “I’ve been talking to my wife and I think this could potentially be my last fight. One more and that’s it.
“I want to be able to play with my kids. I want to be able to not f—ing lose an eye. That’s kind of how I’m feeling right now to be quite honest with you.”
Cejudo, 38, started wrestling at age 11. He won an Olympic gold medal before embarking on a 12-year-long MMA career. He considers his recent eye injury the worst he’s suffered.
“I sound like a crybaby, but it’s the worst injury that I’ve had,” Cejudo said. “It was a little pinkie that went inside and I’m still not 100%, so the doctor said it’s looking like another month. Korean Zombie has the same symptoms and it is why he had to retire. I’m seeing double.
“Luckily, it’s only when I lay down or if I look down, but it took me, like, five days for my eye to stop seeing double when I got hurt. So it’s not the fact that I couldn’t see, I was just seeing two people, you don’t know which one’s which. So I could go out and reach it and I’m catching the wrong thing.”
The eye poke occurred in Round 3 of their fight. Cejudo used the allocated five minutes to recover before fighting to the end of the round, after which he was deemed unfit to continue. Ironically, Cejudo’s toughness cost him the fight. The bout would have been ruled a no-contest had it stopped after the eye poke. However, by resuming and completing Round 3, the fight instead went to a technical decision.
Eye pokes continue to be a significant problem in MMA. The UFC unveiled new gloves in April 2024 before returning to the old design later that year, but neither design significantly addressed eye pokes.
Referees are often hesitant to deduct points even if fighters commit multiple fouls. Cejudo took specific issue with referee Jason Herzog for not penalizing Song. Cejudo argued that fighters are informed that fingers extended towards the opponent’s face are illegal. Herzog appeared on Cejudo’s podcast last month with the referee accepting criticism for his leniency.
“I got f—ed,” Cejudo said. “I wanted to fight. I just wanted to fight with f—ing two eyes.”
“If I can run it back with Song, I would be happy with that. But if it’s not Song, I would like anybody that the UFC’s willing to give me.”
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