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

Henry Cejudo (left) and Petr Yan (right)

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.

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 twitter.com/HenryCejudo/st…

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

Hey @HenryCejudo you talked a lot when you were “retired”. Now it’s time to back it up! 👊🏼 https://t.co/Hv1PEgJHFr

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.

Only if you had the gold I would have loved to have buried 😢 You should go back to Dagestan and learned more wrestling because you got outwrestled by Division III all American. That wouldn’t be smart of you taking an Olympic champ after that lose. I’m after Gold hoe #Bendthekne twitter.com/petryanufc/sta…

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.

And you lost to ALJOLAME twice. Do you think the Olympic champ 2 division UFC is going to play with sorry ass contenders. Your fat ass bold manger is going to get your hurt. I’ll give 20% off if you subscribe to my technique of the week. You know I’m getting the title shoot next twitter.com/petryanufc/sta…

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.

#BREAKING: Aljamain Sterling's next title defense is being finalized vs. T.J. Dillashaw at #UFC279 🏆

News via @mma_kings, @MikeBohn

Full details: bit.ly/Aljo-TJ https://t.co/fgXhjLWOM2

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.

It depends if Henry steps up to the plate or not. Where you at you little munchkin?! twitter.com/mmajunkie/stat…

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.