Henry Cejudo eyes potential matchups against Sean O'Malley, Brandon Moreno

Since deciding against retirement, Henry Cejudo is looking at matchups against opponents who have also held UFC gold.

Henry Cejudo isn’t retiring, which means he will be looking for an opponent soon.

The former two-division UFC champion has an elbow injury concern stemming from his last outing against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 298 that he wants to clear up, but when it comes time to make the walk to the octagon again, “Triple C” knows who he wants to stand across.

“There’s still that (Sean) O’Malley fight,” Cejudo said in a video on his YouTube channel. “I still don’t think O’Malley’s going to get past ‘Chito.’ We could potentially headline something like that in Phoenix.”

O’Malley is set to defend his bantamweight title against Marlon Vera in the main event of UFC 299 at Kaseya Center in Miami. However, Cejudo believes O’Malley will lose his title that evening, making an easier path for a potential fresh matchup in the division.

There’s another fighter who has held UFC gold on Cejudo’s mind, one he shares history with as a former teammate.

“There’s that fight with Brandon Moreno,” Cejudo said. “There’s that bad blood that, you know, former training partners that were somewhat best friends leading up to the breakup, to having a good, nice little Mexican showdown for all you fans.”

Cejudo has called for a fight against Moreno in the past after going their separate ways. It’s unclear if he would be willing to drop down to flyweight again to meet “The Assassin Baby” for the grudge match, as his last bout at 125 pounds was a successful title defense against T.J. Dillashaw in 2019.

Before his recent unanimous decision loss to Dvalishvili, the 37-year-old Cejudo said he would retire if he didn’t win. However, he has since changed that stance and has decided to continue fighting.