Henry Cejudo Lays Out His Prediction For The UFC 281 Main Card

Henry Cejudo joined Michael Bisping to discuss some of the matchups on the UFC 281 main card in New York City.

Cejudo Bisping
Credit Michael Bisping on YouTube

Henry Cejudo sat down with Michael Bisping to discuss his predictions for UFC 281.

The former UFC champ-champ Henry Cejudo is spending a lot of his time these days planning a comeback and making predictions for other fights. He has a YouTube channel in which he puts up weekly videos discussing his takes on upcoming matchups. This time he joined Michael Bisping another former champion on his YouTube channel to discuss what he thinks will happen on Saturday night at UFC 281.

Both Cejudo and Bisping have very analytical minds. Bisping has turned to commentary following his UFC career and Cejudo, although plotting a return has spent his time coaching fighters and breaking down fights. He is now taking a look at a few key matchups at UFC 281 in New York City taking place on Saturday night.

Henry Cejudo breaks down the middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira.

Cejudo is very excited to watch the main event of UFC 281. Like most fans, he knows the history between Adesanya and Pereira but sees this fight playing out a little differently than the first two in kickboxing. Pereira has defeated Adesanya twice in kickboxing during their younger days, now this is their first time meeting inside the UFC Octagon.

“I gotta go with Israel just based on experience. But if it does go to the striking side, which I think is gonna go, I think Israel is gonna just play his damn little distance game. And he’s gonna jab and kick, jab and kick. But I do believe that Pereira plays it right,” he said. “I saw that it was always a second punch that catches Israel, because Israel has a bad tendency of leaning back. So if you can smoke that first punch, lunging with the second, because it’s, in the same way, he caught him in the second fight and put them out. So that being said, if it comes down to just pure striking, which I think the fight is going to be unless Adesanya is going to put in another boring performance. I’m going to have to go Alexander Pereira.”

Cejudo also took a look at the co-main event, a strawweight title fight between champion Carla Esparza and Zhang Weili. Cejudo has had the pleasure of training with former champion Weili in Arizona prior to her last night. He knows her skills inside and out and can see a key to victory in her next title fight.

“That’s the only thing Carla has to do is stick to that wrestling, closer distance, make it ugly, take her down, stall the fight,” he said. “It’s gonna be boring as hell but that’s the only way that she’ll win. But that being said, I don’t see that with Weili because Weili is an animal, she’s an animal off of the bottom too, throwing elbows if she does get taken down. I think it’s an easy fight for Weili and I got Weili by stoppage. I don’t think it goes past three rounds.”

The last matchup that Cejudo took a look at was the lightweight about between Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler. Many people are anticipating a slugfest between these two top-ranked 155-pounders and Cejudo is no different.

“I’m going to have to go with Dustin Poirier. I think Michael Chandler, I think he’s going to wrestle but is he going to really wrestle, if he was to wrestle I think it’s an easy fight for Chandler because if you saw what Khabib did to Poirier and you saw what even Charles Oliveira did when they get on top and how they control like there’s a deficiency there for Poirier,” he said. “I just don’t see Michael Chandler doing that. Wrestling is such a hard base that when you wrestle you do get tired, and your opponent gets tired but do you have that threshold? If he literally just did all of wrestling this whole fight camp, then I would take Chandler but I just can’t. I think Chandler has got a nice little mouthpiece, he’s very well-spoken but to me, it’s all fluff. So for that reason, I have to go with Dustin Poirier.”

UFC 281 will take place on November 12, live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The card is stacked from top to bottom including the two title fights at the top of the main card.

Published on November 11, 2022 at 11:13 am
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