UFC 249 Results: Stats And Video Highlights From Henry Cejudo Vs. Dominick Cruz

The first title fight on last night’s UFC 249 pay-per-view card featured bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo against two-time champion Dominick Cruz. Cruz had not fought since he lost the 135-pound title to Cody Garbrandt in 2016. The loss was only his second career defeat.

Cruz had a visible height advantage, but that did not seem to make a difference to Cejudo, who worked leg kicks early in the first round of the contest in the hopes of slowing Cruz, who has a reputation as a fighter who never stops moving . At the halfway point of the first stanza, Cejudo scored his first takedown. He landed a few head strikes while he and Cruz were briefly on the mat, but Cruz was able to get back to his feet fairly quickly. 

When the two ended the round they stared at each other as they passed, but those mean mugs turned into laughs when they both realized that Cruz had gone to the wrong corner.

Cejudo did a nice job controlling the center of the cage in the early going of the second round. He kept Cruz near the fence, which allowed him to cut Cruz off as he moved from side to side. Cejudo also did his best to land leg kicks whenever he could to take away Cruz’s speed and movement advantage. Halfway through the second stanza, Cruz seemed to find his distance and was able to land strikes of his own.

With 30 seconds left in the second round, the two fighters leaned in and a cut opened on Cejudo’s hairline. When the two got back to action both fighters were extremely aggressive. Cejudo landed a knee that dropped Cruz. The champ followed up with several strikes to the head of Cruz. The two-time ex-titleholder did not look like he was defending himself on the ground and the referee came in and brought the fight to an end at the 4:58 mark of the second round. 

The win was Cejudo’s first defense of the bantamweight title he won in June 2019 with a third-round victory over Marlon Moraes. 

During his post-fight interview, Cejudo, who was also the UFC flyweight champion, announced he was retiring from the sport at 33 years of age.

Cruz strongly objected to the stoppage when he spoke to UFC commentator Joe Rogan, but Cruz’s argument was for naught as the fight had already been decided.

UFC 249 took place at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The pay-per-view card streamed on ESPN+.