How to judge Henry Cejudo after another loss?

Ricky Simon had his back against the wall on a three-fight losing skid against a highly regarded rising name at bantamweight in Javid Basharat. The end result was the greatest highlight of his 14-fight octagon tenure.

Simon (21-6 MMA, 9-5 UFC) channeled his inner Dan Henderson in the opening round of the bantamweight bout when he landed a nuclear right hand square to the chin of Basharat that put him out. Simon dove for a brutal sledgehammer follow up to complete a highlight all fighters could only dream to achieve on this stage.

After the fight, Simon expressed everything that was true. He said he was in a difficult spot and felt the doubts, but never lost confidence and awareness of his history sharing the octagon with some of the best ever at 135 pounds. Did the new blonde hair have anything to do with it, as well? Who knows. But this was a win that breathes new life into Simon’s career, which, even with the losing skid in mind, felt like it had plateaued.

Simon’s epic knockout was just a part of a stellar preliminary card package that saw seven finishes in seven fights.

There’s no need to go into an individual breakdown of every fight. Congrats to all the winners from Simon to Austin Vanderford, Ion Cutelaba, Melquizael Costa, Mansur Abdul-Malik, Nursulton Ruziboev and Modestas Bukauskas. That was a great few hours, especially considering there have been some simply grueling fight cards over the past year.

I’m not going to sit here and ponder if it was a result of UFC Apex vs. a filled arena, or the old gloves vs. the new/now-old-gloves. Just appreciate the handiwork of all of those fighters, because they provided us with the entertainment that defines what the UFC is, even if it’s the not the elite-of-the-elite talent.

If you’d forgotten about how special Jean Silva looked in his mid-2024 run where he got two wins in 15 days, the former being a bloodbath finish of Drew Dober, the Brazilian offered a reminder in his return from a seven-month layoff with a first-round knockout of Melsik Baghdasaryan.

It’s fair to say at this point that Silva (15-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) is worthy of some legitimate attention. He has finished all four of his UFC wins against a pretty strong list of competition, and prior to this fight the only concern about him was his ability to make the featherweight limit. He missed weight once before, which led to his fight at lightweight against Dober. He came back down for this one and he was on point when he stepped on the scale, then on point again in the octagon.

The power of Silva is something to behold for the division. It’s going to cause a lot of problems for fighters, and that’s not even to speak of the extremely unique (to put it kindly) mentality he brings to the sport.

Silva left us wanting more after his performance at the event, and he needs a step up. The matchup with Baghdasaryan almost felt like a downgrade after the win over Dober, but it allowed him to shine. Will he get what he wants in Bryce Mitchell? We’ll see. But it’s interesting.

Anthony Hernandez had proven strong in his UFC run prior to this event, but his unanimous decision victory over Brendan Allen in the co-main event was a validation that he is a for real new-wave contender in the middleweight division.

Hernandez (14-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) has flaws that need fixing, but he showed a lot of skill in beating Allen for his most significant UFC win to date. Some might downgrade it since he already won their first meeting six years ago, but Allen has improved by leaps and bounds since then, and no matter what kind of dislike MMA fans might have for him, this is a serious notch.

Not only does Hernandez have seven straight victories in 185 pounds on his resume, but he surpassed Chris Weidman’s takedown record in this fight. He is a top-level threat on the mat in these fights, and it’ll be intriguing to see how the UFC matches him up after a number of significant results in the weight class over the past month.

No one wanted to see what was a spectacular card capped off by that bummer of an outcome between Song Yadong and Henry Cejudo.

Although it would’ve been the preference for everyone to see this end in a clear and decisive manner, it’s hard not to be fascinated by what the bantamweight headliner ultimately produced.

It seemed Song (22-8-1 MMA, 11-3-1 UFC) was well on his way to beating Cejudo (16-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) absent any fouls. Can you be 100 percent certain of that? No. Cejudo’s game plan was likely to drag him into the deeper rounds and drown him, but when the fight-altering double eye poke happened late in the third round, nothing from there on out could be defined as clear cut.

Was Cejudo looking for a way out? That’s a bold accusation to make. But his repeated claims that he could not see to his coaches, the referee and doctor was too much to overlook, and it had to be stopped. Cejudo’s combat sports history should give him the credit that everything he said is true, but that doesn’t change the result. It wasn’t a no contest or a disqualification, and history will show it as a loss.

It’s not any other loss, either. It’s a third straight loss for Cejudo since coming back from retirement in May 2023. He’s going on five years without an MMA win, and although he deserves the utmost respect for taking a fight like this, the outcome was not one that boosted his stock in any way, shape or form.

Although Song was the winner here, and deserves respect for a solid performance, the way it all unfolded is going to leave him in the shadow of what the future holds for a former two-division UFC champ like Cejudo.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 252.