With T.J. Dillashaw relinquishing the bantamweight title earlier this week, the UFC is moving towards a fight between Marlon Moraes and Henry Cejudo to determine a new 135-pound champion.
That’s coming from UFC president Dana White, who announced the news on Saturday night following the UFC Fight Night card from Nashville.
“I now have a plan. I didn’t have a plan before, now I have a plan,” White explained on the ESPN+ post fight show. “It looks like we’re going to do the [Marlon] Moraes-[Henry] Cejudo fight.
“They both want that fight really bad, seems like a good fight to make with the whole [TJ] Dillashaw thing now.”
Dillashaw surrendered the welterweight title after ‘adverse’ findings in a drug test that was taken around his last fight in January when he fell to Cejudo by knockout at flyweight.
The New York State Athletic Commission suspended Dillashaw for one year and fined him $10,000. USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) is still investigating the situation and Dillashaw could potentially face additional sanctions based on the UFC’s anti-doping policy.
Now with a vacant title at bantamweight, the UFC appears ready to move forward to crown a new champion in the division.
Cejudo has been clamoring for a shot at winning a second world title after he finished Dillashaw in just 32 seconds in their fight earlier this year. Cejudo already holds the flyweight championship and he has been asking for the opportunity to win a second world title in the UFC.
As for Moraes, the former World Series of Fighting champion has won his last four fights in a row including a trio of jaw-dropping finishes against Raphael Assuncao, Jimmie Rivera and Aljamain Sterling.
While the fight appears to be in the works, White didn’t say how soon he planned on making the matchup although it appears the UFC will move quickly now that a new bantamweight champion is needed.
