Add another chapter to the remarkable story of Henry Cejudo, the Olympic gold medalist and UFC flyweight champion who added a second world title belt to his collection Saturday night in Chicago, as he stopped Marlon Moraes in the third round to win the vacant UFC bantamweight championship.
The 32-year-old Cejudo joins Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier and Amanda Nunes as the only fighters to hold two UFC titles simultaneously.
It wasn’t an easy road to history, though, as Moraes was all offense from the start, unworried with anything that was coming back at him. Soon, Cejudo’s left leg was marked up, prompting him to look for a takedown. Moraes eluded the attempt and kept the heat on, switching up his attacks as he piled up the points.
Keeping to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” strategy, Moraes’ kicks allowed him to control the action through much of round two, but with under two minutes left, Cejudo crashed into gear with his punches and several hard knees, and though Moraes stunned “The Messenger” just before the horn, it appeared that Cejudo had turned the corner in the fight.
With Moraes winded, Cejudo pushed the pace in the third, nearly catching the Brazilian in a choke. When that came up short, Cejudo moved to a ground-and-pound attack, and after a series of unanswered strikes, referee Marc Goddard intervened, stopping the fight at 4:51 of the third round.
With the win, Phoenix’ Cejudo moves to 15-2. Nova Friburgo’s Moraes falls to 22-6-1.
