Alexander Volkanovski explains why Henry Cejudo fight doesn’t benefit him

By Adam D Martin - November 30, 2021

UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski explained why a Henry Cejudo fight doesn’t benefit him, but mostly benefits Cejudo.

Alexander Volkanovski, Alex Volkanovski, Henry Cejudo

Cejudo has been calling out Volkanovski for months as he wants to return to the UFC at a third weight class and look to make history by winning a third UFC belt in a third division. Volkanovski, meanwhile, has not conveyed much interest in the fight as he already has a long list of challengers vying for his gold at 145lbs, including former champ Max Holloway.

Speaking to John Hyun Ko of The AllStar, Volkanovski explained why it doesn’t make sense for him to fight Cejudo. As far as Volkanovski goes, it’s a win-win situation for his opponent, but for the champ, it’s mostly a lose-lose situation, as he explained.

“The UFC ain’t taking him serious. I guarantee the UFC isn’t paying him what he wants. If he is fighting, the bargaining hasn’t gone in his favor at all. And he’s just fighting for whatever contract he was already originally on. The UFC isn’t throwing anything to me so I’m not going to waste my time by pretending to hype it up,” Volkanovski said.

“It’s a win-win situation for him if he goes to the featherweight division and fights me. He loses….does that look that bad on his end? Not really. Even though we’re not that far apart in size cause I’m pretty small for a featherweight anyway. But at the end of the day, people are gonna be it’s a featherweight beating a flyweight-bantamweight. That doesn’t help my legacy at all. His legacy if he wins, that’s huge. If he loses, it doesn’t affect much because I feel like he’s expected to lose.”

Do you agree with the reasons Alexander Volkanovski laid out as to why a Henry Cejudo fight benefits his opponent much more?