Eddie Cha, the coach of Henry Cejudo, recently offered some insight into the former two-division titleholder’s condition following UFC Seattle.
Cejudo’s latest trip to the Octagon against Chinese standout Song Yadong ended in controversy after he suffered a rather gruesome eye poke in the latter half of the third round. ‘Triple C’ used the full five minutes of allotted recovery and ultimately made it out of the round, but he was unable to continue into the fourth.
Speaking with James Lynch in a MiddleEasy exclusive interview, Cha confirmed that Cejudo will not have to undergo surgery, but is still experiencing some issues with his eyesight.
“He’s good. We went to the doctor on Monday morning,” Cha said. “I had to drive him because he was still seeing double vision. He doesn’t need surgery and we go check again in three days so he’s as good as can be.”
Watching the finish in real-time, there was confusion aplenty as referee Jason Herzog started the fourth round only to immediately pause the fight and send it to the scorecards after three completed rounds. That resulted in Cejudo losing a unanimous technical decision instead of the bout being dubbed a no-contest due to injury.
Cejudo-Song was stopped after the fourth round continued and was taken into decision after the three rounds due to eye pokes that rendered Cejudo unable to continue.
Song Yadong won by technical decision. #UFCSeattle pic.twitter.com/TzsouoAo6m
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 23, 2025
Also adding to the frustration was the fact that Song was never deducted a point despite delivering the fight-ending foul.
“Yeah, it could have gone a lot of different ways,” Cha said. “After the eye poke [Song] was still sticking his fingers out. I mean, there shouldn’t be a warning. Our warning was before the fight started so it’s very frustrating, but Henry is such a competitor. He could have just gone the easy way out. He could have just taken the no contest, but he wanted the five minutes and then he asked how much time we had on the clock so he can just kill the clock and get another minute so that’d be about seven minutes, but he still couldn’t see.
“If you’ve never been poked in the eye—especially if you saw him sticking his fingers out. I think both eyes got poked so you can imagine how bad that feels. It wasn’t just a gouge. It took a good chunk of the right part of his eye out.”
Throughout the recovery process, Henry Cejudo made it clear that he was struggling to see out of his left eye. Despite that, the cageside physician never once conducted an eye test.
“I don’t know what more he could have said. They didn’t even do an eye test like, ‘How many fingers am I holding up’ and asking if he’s good to fight,” Cha added. “Every time the doctor asked him, [Cejudo] goes, ‘I see four of you. Give me a minute, I can’t see’ and they still continued to fight. Didn’t even ask him so it’s a little frustrating. There should have been a point deduction. It should have been a draw or a no contest, but we got the short end of the stick.”
Unsurprisingly, fans were quick to lambaste Cejudo, suggesting that he was just looking for a way out of the phone. Responding to those comments, Cha said:
“I think a majority of fans have never trained a day in their life. They’ve never sparred or taken anything. They’re just watching. But if you actually trained or did anything you would kind of know about getting poked in the eye that extreme. Most guys can’t even open their eyes so I don’t look too far into that.”
A Move Back Down to 125 Could Be in the Future for Henry Cejudo
As far as what comes next, Cha is not sure, but a potential clash with No. 2 ranked contender Petr Yan is definitely on their radar.
“I have no idea. We just want to get the eye healed first, but I think it’s a great exciting fight with Yan, but we really don’t care. It’s not up to us. We’ll see what happens.”
There is also the possibility of seeing Henry Cejudo drop back down to flyweight—a division in desperate need of new blood and a fresh contender for reigning 125-pound champion Alexandre Pantoja.
“I think [125] is still wide open. I would love to see him go with Pantoja. He can definitely make the weight. I mean, we cut less than six pounds in one session so he can definitely make it. Pantoja is lapping people right now and that’s why Kai Asukara got the title shot, but Henry has a great story with him. He picked him on The Ultimate Fighter instead of [Brandon] Moreno and he was his coach so there’s a great storyline to it and I think it’d be a great fight.”
Watch the full exclusive interview below:
