"You retired the day I became number 1 contender" - Petr Yan and Henry Cejudo trade barbs on social media

Henry Cejudo and Petr Yan have been going back-and-forth on social media recently. On Twitter, 'No Mercy' claimed that Cejudo retired as soon as the Russian became the number one contender in the UFC’s bantamweight division.

"The truth is you retired the day I became number 1 contender and unretired on the same day I ceased to be the champion. Now you ducking me again only proving those facts," wrote Petr Yan.

It all started when Yan posted an edited picture of himself and Cejudo facing off and called out 'The Messenger' for a fight.

Cejudo responded to the callout by saying that he would have been interested in fighting Yan if he had the bantamweight title with him. The former two-division champion advised 'No Mercy' to go back to Dagestan and work on his wrestling skills.

Yan fired back with the 'number 1 contender' tweet and accused Cejudo of ducking him.

In response, 'The Messenger' reminded the Russian of his two losses to Aljamain Sterling and said his next fight would be for UFC gold.

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Aljamain Sterling is open to defending his title against Henry Cejudo

A fight between T.J. Dillashaw and bantamweight king Aljamain Sterling is currently in the works for UFC 279.

According to 'Funk Master', nothing is set in stone yet. He would be more interested in fighting Henry Cejudo if the former two-division champion decides to step up.

Sterling recently faced off against Yan in a rematch at UFC 273. The two bantamweights put on a highly competitive fight which ended with a split decision victory for 'Funk Master'.

Cejudo, on the other hand, has not been in action since May 2020. In his last UFC appearance, he took on Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title at UFC 249 and defeated him via TKO in the second round.

'Triple C' later vacated the title and announced his retirement from the sport. However, this has not stopped him from talking trash with other fighters over the years.

The Olympic gold medalist had been teasing a comeback for years. However, he recently proved how serious he was about it by re-entering the USADA drug testing pool.