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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Farah Hannoun

Henry Cejudo questions Alexandre Pantoja’s sustainability as UFC champ: ‘What scares me … is his style of fighting’

Henry Cejudo isn’t sure Alexandre Pantoja can remain UFC flyweight champion for long with his fighting style.

Pantoja (25-5 MMA, 9-3 UFC) outlasted Brandon Moreno (21-6-2 MMA, 9-3-2 UFC) in a five-round war to claim the 125-pound title in this past Saturday’s UFC 290 co-headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Cejudo praised Pantoja for fighting with a lot of heart but questions his strategy.

“What scares me with Pantoja a bit is his style of fighting,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “Pantoja’s style of fighting, man, it’s – will a guy like that be able to last and be able to have six to seven to eight title defenses? Or is it short-lived? Can Pantoja become a little more technical defensively? Can he do a really good job of that?”

Cejudo pointed to Pantoja’s aggression costing him against former champion Deiveson Figueiredo, who was able to land big shots in a Fight of the Night decision win in 2019.

“I go back, and I watch that fight with Brandon, and it’s the same thing in the first and second fight that they’ve had,” Cejudo continued. “He takes a lot of hits. He got hit by Brandon quite a bit, and a guy like Deiveson Figueiredo, when he fought him, it was a good stylistic matchup for him (Figueiredo) because Deiveson focused on power, and Deiveson actually really did hurt him. When you hurt somebody, you slow them down.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.

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