Demetrious Johnson, John McCarthy, Henry Cejudo

Henry “The Messenger” Cejudo, 33, of Phoenix, Arizona, United States and Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, 33, of Parkland, Washington, USA are two of the top flyweights in mixed martial arts today. It is not unlikely for their trilogy bout to happen in ONE Championship.

As the inaugural flyweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Johnson successfully defended his belt 11 times between 2012 and 2017. Cejudo was his eighth challenger.

Their first encounter was at “UFC 197” at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on April 23, 2016. In the co-main event of the evening, Cejudo failed to dethrone Johnson as the reigning UFC Flyweight Champion knocked out his challenger via knees and punches in the first round.

They had their rematch at “UFC 227” at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on August 4, 2018. In the co-main event, Cejudo dethroned Johnson via split decision after five five-minute rounds.

After losing to Cejudo, Johnson moved to ONE Championship. The Parkland native became the inaugural ONE Flyweight Grand Prix Champion on October 12, 2019.

On the other hand, Cejudo went on to simultaneously hold the UFC belts in the flyweight and bantamweight divisions. He officially vacated the latter on February 29, 2020 and the former on May 9, 2020 when he announced his retirement.

Now, Cejudo is rumored to be coming out of retirement and moving to ONE Championship. But according to Dominance MMA founder Ali Abdelaziz, 42, of Cairo, Egypt, the former UFC Flyweight and Bantamweight Champion still has a live contract with the UFC but he is not closing his doors.

“If this is real talk (from Cejudo), I have to talk to both parties cause I would love to see that match between them,”  Abdelaziz said. “Right now Henry Cejudo is still a UFC fighter but if two people want to do something, we can do it but we have to get everything to agree.”

Recently, Abdelaziz announced that he will be working with ONE Championship. Known as the manager of reigning UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov, 31, of Makhachkala, Dagestan, Russia, he stated, “I just want to express my excitement with working with ONE.”

“I represent around 300 fighters, some of the biggest fighters in the world which we can work with,” Abdelaziz continued. “I think I have a lot of guys right now, some up-and-coming fighters, world champions, big names and one day some of them can become free agents and join ONE.  I am excited to work.”