Flyweight champion Henry Cejudo and Marlon Moraes are in line to fight for the vacant bantamweight title next after TJ Dillashaw relinquished his title following an abnormal drug test earlier this week.
That’s the word according to Dana White last night following UFC Fight Night 148 in Nashville.
“They both want that fight really bad,” White said of Cejudo and Moraes. “It seems like a good fight to make with the whole Dillashaw thing now, and then you do (Formiga) versus Benavidez on the same card – anything goes wrong, one of them can step up and take the fight, and then the winner of that fight is the guaranteed No. 1 contender for the next (flyweight) shot.”
Cejudo and Moraes had already began the trash talk about a potential title match between them during the past week, which perhaps only helped solidify them as the frontrunners to secure the fight.
In all fairness it did seem to be a fairly simple choice anyway. After all, Cejudo just defeated Dillashaw to successfully defend his flyweight title and had indicated he wanted to move up to 135lbs to rematch him.
Cejudo is currently on a four-fight winning streak that saw him defeat Wilson Reis and Sergio Pettis before stunning the MMA world by finally ending long-time flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson’s title reign and then taking out Dillashaw as well.
As for Moraes, the former World Series Of Fighting champion is currently four-fights undefeated at bantamweight and with wins over John Dodson, Aljamain Sterling, Jimmie Rivera and Raphael Assuncao he’s established himself as the No.1 contender in the division.
As yet there’s no time-frame for the title fight between the two, but given how eager they both sound to make this fight happen then it shouldn’t be too long before it gets put together officially.
