Marlon Moraes was one of the many viewers when the UFC made its ESPN + debut Saturday night, and as one might imagine, he was watching the main event between T.J. Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo with a keen interest.
Marlon Moraes is currently ranked #4 at bantamweight and Dana White has stated that Moraes’s upcoming main event against Raphael Assuncao at UFC Fortaleza will determine the next contender for T.J. Dillashaw. Moraes anticipates being the bantamweight champion by the end of the year, but until then, he must concede that T.J. Dillashaw is the representative of the bantamweight division as its champion. And Moraes was no less proud to make that concession as he was Saturday night after watching Henry Cejudo run through Dillashaw in less than one minute (Transcript via BJPenn.com):
“I just feel a little bit embarrassed, you know?” Marlon Moraes said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show when speaking of T.J. Dillashaw’s loss to Henry Cejudo. “Being a 135er and having our champion going down and losing… Because I’m a ’35er, he’s going down, representing us and he lost.”
Embarrassment aside, Marlon Moraes believes that it is good for the sport that Henry Cejudo got the victory because it likely secures the jobs of many of his personal friends:
“I have a lot of friends at 125-pounds,” Moraes said. “I think the 125-pound division should stick around and they have a lot of guys. I think Henry, he fought and he was there representing all these guys. I wasn’t happy, because I’m happy when I win, and I love to watch those good fighters fighting but I was kind of cheering for Henry to win.”
Do you believe that 135ers like Marlon Moraes should be embarrassed with T.J. Dillashaw’s performance at UFC Brooklyn?
