It was announced earlier today that Joseph Benavidez will fight Deiveson Figueiredo for the newly vacated UFC flyweight title. In a recent interview with MMA Junkie, former champion Henry Cejudo would announce that he wasn’t being stripped of the title, but was vacating it, saying: “I am not being stripped, I am relinquishing my title. … ‘Triple C’ is relinquishing his title to these wannabe, so-called flyweight kingpins. That’s what’s going on. I’m relinquishing my belt. Being stripped is not what I’m doing. I’m relinquishing, and you can tell them all to bend the knee.”
Obviously he made the announcement in a typically cringe Cejudo fashion, however the fact that he is relinquishing that title and making a permanement move up to bantamweight could signal the end of the flyweight division.
What has Cejudo done?
Dana White made little to no secret of the fact that if Cejudo had lost to TJ Dillashaw in their bantamweight title fight earlier this year, he would likely be shutting down the flyweight division. He also made the same threat if Cejudo didn’t defend his 125lb belt. With Cejudo now out of the picture and Demetrious Johnson fighting over in ONE, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see the flyweight division hanging around much longer.
There are no major draws in the division, not to mention the fact that the top guys at flyweight have essentially all lost to the previous two champions, meaning they’re only able to fight for the belt because the two guys they couldn’t beat are no longer around.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the fight between Benavidez and Figueiredo on February 29th. It seems as though Dana White may be giving the division one final chance to prove that they belong in the UFC, however I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see the end of the flyweight division by the end of 2020.
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