{"id":136217,"date":"2021-09-28T23:50:49","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T23:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=136217"},"modified":"2021-09-29T02:58:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T02:58:20","slug":"retired-champ-begs-for-shot-at-alexander-the-average","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=136217","title":{"rendered":"Retired champ begs for shot at 'Alexander the Average'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired former UFC champion and Olympic gold medallist Henry Cejudo has urged boss Dana White to set up a fight with featherweight champion Alexander Volkanosvki after the Australian's remarkable victory at UFC 266<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Australian's 20th straight MMA win put him on the map in the US, with fight fans lauding the Aussie's toughness and "Houdini-like" escape tactics against Brian Ortega, earning him widespread praise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Volkanovski<\/p>\n

The champion's performance however didn't sit well with a couple of former champions.<\/p>\n

Conor McGregor labelled Volkanovski a "little fart" before replacing his Tweet with a more complimentary post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Henry Cejudo, the former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion wants a piece of the Aussie, posting to social media in the aftermath of the victory calling for a shot at the Wollongong native.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Volkanovski brushed off Cejudo as "the little germ" in the post-fight press conference, however that didn't deter Cejudo from begging White to let him have a crack at the featherweight titleholder.<\/p>\n

"Alexander the Average, this overgrown midget," Cejudo told TMZ Sports. "This is the thing, it's not even a challenge against this ugly face. It's really a challenge against Dana White.<\/p>\n

\"Volkanovski's<\/p>\n

"How are you gonna doubt an Olympic champ, dude? Olympic champ, how are you gonna doubt a flyweight champ and a two-division champ in the UFC? It's crazy. Anybody that would doubt me is freaking crazy. Let me go up, man."<\/p>\n

Cejudo retired from MMA last year following his bantamweight title defence over Dominick Cruz at UFC 249. Yet he has still expressed interest in returning for a shot at the featherweight belt, and a chance at history. The former champ left the fight game in part due to a pay dispute, and said convincing White is a bigger obstacle than fighting Volkanovski.<\/p>\n

"Not only do I believe that I can beat him, I know I can stop him," Cejudo said. "As much as I saw good things from Volkanovski, there are still a lot of holes.<\/p>\n

\"Volkanovski<\/p>\n

"I believe my height would be problem for him, because he is a couple inches taller than me. My speed, my wrestling, my experience, I've been in there against the best. Okay, Alexander the Average had a great performance, it was a great fight, I just believe that I have the 'it' factor to beat this dude. Not only to beat this dude, but to stop him.<\/p>\n

"Allow me to make history. If he's that good, allow him to shut me up. Dana White, if you're listening, this is a real message. Forget the cringe, forget the persona, this is straight up me: I am the greatest combat athlete of all time and I promise you, if you give me the opportunity, I will knock this dude out in no less than three rounds."<\/p>\n

Despite saying that Cejudo does not deserve a title shot, Volkanovski admitted that he'd be open to fighting him because he wants to fight more often than he has the past year.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retired former UFC champion and Olympic gold medallist Henry Cejudo has urged boss Dana White to set up a fight with featherweight champion Alexander Volkanosvki […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136217"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136219,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136217\/revisions\/136219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}