Early on, it looked like Henry Cejudo might come up short against Marlon Moraes. But the decorated wrestler and flyweight champ came back to lay claim to the bantamweight title.
Moraes planted a leg kick right out of the gate, and fired a couple more kicks in the bout’s opening moments. Cejudo finally fired a combo, but Moraes countered with authority. Cejudo shot in a couple of minutes in, but Moraes defended nicely. Moraes continued to pick away at Cejudo’s legs with kicks, and moments later, they both winged hard punches. Cejudo changed levels right before the round ended, but Moraes saw it coming.
Moraes continued to fire off kicks early on into round two, but Cejudo appeared to score moments later with a punch. The action slowed somewhat, but with less than two minutes left, Cejudo cracked Moraes with a couple of nice rights. Cejudo continued to press forward and he proceeded to punish Moraes with a series of knees from the Thai clinch. During the round’s final moments, the bantamweights exchanged big shots, one of which may have hurt Cejudo.
Cejudo pressured immediately in round three, and Moraes missed with a winging head kick. Moments later, Moraes claimed he took a poke to the eye, but the action was only stopped momentarily. Cejudo’s pressured with another takedown attempt and eventually clinched up. Cejudo dragged Moraes to the mat and began working a choke. Moraes defended, but Cejudo continued to work from the top position. In the final minute, Cejudo punished Moraes with elbows and hammer fists. With just seconds left, the fight was stopped, and Cejudo is a champ-champ.
After the bout, Cejudo confirmed that he sprained his ankle during fight week, following rumors and speculation that he may have incurred an injury. Cejudo also proceeded to call out Dominick Cruz, Cody Garbrandt and Urijah Faber.
Here are the results for UFC 238, which took place in Chicago.
Henry Cejudo def. Marlon Moraes via TKO (punches) R3, 4:51
Valentina Shevchenko def. Jessica Eye via KO R2, 0:26 (head kick)
Tony Ferguson def. Donald Cerrone via TKO (doctor stoppage) R2, 5:00
Petr Yan def. Jimmie Rivera via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Blagoy Ivanov def. Tai Tuivasa via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Tatiana Suarez def. Nina Ansaroff via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Aljamain Sterling def. Pedro Munhoz via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Alexa Grasso def. Karolina Kowalkiewicz via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Calvin Kattar def. Ricardo Lamas via KO (punches) R1, 4:06
Yan Xiaonan def. Angela Hill via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Darren Stewart def. Bevon Lewis via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Eddie Wineland def. Grigorii Popov via TKO (punches) R2, 4:47
Katlyn Chookagian def. Joanne Calderwood via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
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