Henry Cejudo Shuts Down Early Stoppage Talk: Dillashaw’s ‘Body Went Limp’

Much has been made about the supposedly early stoppage in the Henry Cejudo vs. TJ Dillashaw main event at last weekend’s (Sat., January 19, 2019) UFC on ESPN+ 1 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

“The Messenger” rushed bantamweight champ Dillashaw with a barrage of strikes early in the fight. There’s no doubt Dillashaw was rocked. He was dropped on several occasions in a 32-second fight. But many argued he could have fought on and that the referee stopped the fight early. UFC President Dana White was among those doubters, calling the stoppage “horrible.”

Not surprisingly, Dillashaw was the main detractor of the stoppage, calling for a rematch with Cejudo after he said the fight was “stolen” from him. That may be a stretch, as Cejudo was clearly dominating the early going of the fight. Yet the shroud of doubt remains, and Dillashaw possibly could have weathered that early storm.

Hurt From the Get-Go

Cejudo doesn’t believe that was the case in any sense, however. Speaking at the UFC Brooklyn post-fight press conference (via MMA Fighting), Cejudo said Dillashaw’s body went limp. The stoppage was a good one because of that:

“It was a great stoppage because I felt his body go limp. You guys have to understand I weighed in at 146 pounds when I fought him. Strong, and you could see it. Every blow that he took, he was eating some hammers. Personally, I thought it was a good stoppage because he was going to take another 10, 20 hits.

“When your body goes limp like that, when you cut weight like that, thinking you’re gonna go out there and just take my belt from me, that’s not the way it works. So I think it was a great stoppage. This is why MMA is sanctioned now because of refs. If I was to talk to that ref, ‘You’re okay, man. We were both in there. We saw him go limp a few times.’ Watch it again and you’ll see it.”

The Shove

Cejudo has a point in that Dillashaw was moving down to flyweight to face him. The weight cut, especially for an already smaller fighter, could absolutely have affected Dillashaw’s ability to absorb punches. Cejudo pointed out that his first kick seemed to rock Dillashaw because he shoved him down. To him, that was a telltale sign that Dillashaw was hurt:

“I saw he was hurt since the beginning, I thought it was that kick that really kind of rattled him. I’m going to have to re-watch that fight, but I could tell, I saw him going limp, I saw his body changing. I shoved him down. If you shove somebody down, they’re hurt. If I do this to you and you’re just (acts dazed), come on.”

For The Flyweights

And while Dillashaw may not accept the loss as legitimate, Cejudo believes he beat the best bantamweight of all-time nonetheless. He claimed the win was for every flyweight fighter looking to rise up to championship aspirations:

“This win was not just for me but for every flyweight out there that wanted the opportunity to fight for a world title someday,” Cejudo said. “I put him on the mat. I beat — I know he may not accept it from what I’m hearing — but I beat the greatest bantamweight of all time. And this is a flyweight, these are the guys that are boring (laughs).”