Well that didn’t last long. On Wednesday the UFC announced two championship fights for March 5 at UFC 272. One of those fights was a featherweight championship fight between current champion Alexander Volkanovski and former champion and consensus greatest featherweight of all time, Max Holloway, in what would have been an epic trilogy fight. Now, just two days later, it has been announced that Holloway is pulling out of that fight.
Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) has been forced to withdraw from Alex Volkanovski (@alexvolkanovski) trilogy after re-aggravating a previous injury. Happened just days after he accepted. More details here. https://t.co/V0sa9kSUzk
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) January 7, 2022
So with Holloway out, it sounds like Volkanovski wants to stay on the card and find a new challenger. After all, there’s still plenty of time. So who was one of the first people to offer to step in once the news broke that there was a vacancy? Former double champion Henry Cejudo, tweeting “Triple C to the rescue.”
Triple C to the rescue. @danawhite you have my number. 🏆🏆🏆🏆 #C4 #bendtheknee https://t.co/Jkppjffm12 pic.twitter.com/CWkSzyNezf
— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) January 7, 2022
The nickname “Triple C” is for Cejudo’s triple champion status. Cejudo is the former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion, holding both belts simultaneously to gain the coveted double champ (or “champ champ” as Conor McGregor famously coined it) status. Cejudo is also an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, so that’s where his third championship comes in.
Cejudo has not fought since 2020 when he retired at UFC 249. However, since retiring he has consistently talked about returning. Often when talking about returning, he has discussed wanting to return at featherweight and challenge for that belt to try to become the first person to hold a UFC belt at three different weight classes. This could be his chance!
Other Challengers
Unfortunately for Cejudo, it doesn’t seem like it will be likely that he gets the call from Dana White that he’s asking for. According to Ariel Helwani, Volkanovski is much more interested in fighting “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung.
Chan Sung Jung is currently the frontrunner, by a margin, to replace Holloway versus Alex Volkanovski, per sources.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 7, 2022
Helwani later said that Volkanovski’s manager has said that they are interested in the Zombie fight, and that Sung Jung is as well.
Alex Volkanovski wants Chan Sung Jung on March 5, per his manager Ash James. That’s who they want unequivocally.
Zombie is in, too, I’m told.
Just need to be formally offered at this point.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 7, 2022
Hell, Volkanovski HIMSELF tweeted that he wants Zombie to be the replacement!
@KoreanZombieMMA Let’s do this!! #UFC272
— Alex Volkanovski (@alexvolkanovski) January 7, 2022
So now, as Helwani’s tweet said earlier, it’s just down to the UFC actually sending the contracts, as both Volkanovski and Zombie have already verbally agreed to the fight.
In terms of Triple C, Helwani wrote that the UFC isn’t too happy with Cejudo right now and “he was never considered” according to Helwani’s sources.
UFC 272 is currently scheduled to take place on March 5. Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan II for the UFC bantamweight championship is the other championship match that is currently scheduled for the card.
