UFC’s bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo believes that Conor McGregor would fall to defeat inside the first round at the hands of Justin Gaethje should they ever meet in the Octagon.McGregor’s next opponent remains unknown, although fight fans speculate a potential pair up against Gaethje could be on the cards.Sources close to the fighter claim that Gaethje was furious back in January for not being given the green-light ahead of Donald Cerrone to face McGregor.This is in spite of the fact that Gaethje defeated Cerrone back in September.The lightweight title remains tied up for the next few months at least, however, as Khabib Nurmagomedov defends his title against Tony Ferguson on April 18, all being well of course.Cejudo jumped at the chance to call-out McGregor after a tweet was sent out showing the Irishman hitting a punching machine during training.Cejudo tweeted: "And that’s actually what the problem is! @TheNotoriousMMA you should be working your takedown defence #Mctapper"@Justin_Gaethje would destroy in round one! #pussycat"McGregor’s striking coach Owen Roddy is pushing for a match-up between the two to take place.
Roddy went on to tell ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, as per The Metro: “Bring the UFC back to life as well with all these shows being cancelled and stuff like that. I think a fight on 11 July would bring the UFC back to life and get everybody back on track.
“My fingers are crossed and I’m sure the rest of the world fingers are crossed for that fight.
“There is a lot of talks about Gaethje. I mean he is an exciting fighter. I would like to see it, I’m sure you’d like to see it and the rest of the world would like to see it.”
Given all that is happening regarding the global coronavirus pandemic, UFC president Dana White remains insistent that events will not be cancelled, and fights will in fact continue to take place; albeit they may be hosted in empty arenas.
White stated: “Every fighter that fights for me will fight three times this year. Our schedule will go on. Everybody’s gonna get paid, and we will figure this out, and we will be the first sport back on.
"We’re gonna follow these guidelines to not have more than 10 people in a room and we’re hoping that this all clears up by April.
"This fight’s going to happen, no crowd, whatever it takes. (It’s) probably not going to even be in the United States but this fight’s going to happen."