An accidental eye-poke by Song on Cejudo left the former two-division world champion in distress, as the American used all five minutes of his injury timeout to allow his eye to recover from the nasty poke.
Referee Jason Herzog opted not to penalize the Chinese fighter with a point deduction, and that decision proved crucial in the final reckoning as, after the bout resumed and the final seconds of the third round played out, Cejudo returned to his corner and told his team that he couldn’t see.
It resulted in the fight being stopped at the start of Round 4 and, with the foul confirmed as being adjudged as an accidental one, the bout went to the scorecards, with Song claiming scores of 29-28, 29-28, 30-27 after the rounds contested to earn a technical decision victory.
Had Herzog penalized Song with a point deduction, the fight would have been scored as a majority draw.
The bout brought a fun night of fights in Seattle to a controversial end, but couldn’t detract from some of the spectacular action earlier in the evening.
The co-main event saw middleweight contender Anthony Hernandez extend his win streak to seven with a unanimous decision victory over Brendan Allen, while longtime bantamweight contender Rob Font eked out a split-decision victory over Jean Matsumoto.
The standout performer on the main card was undoubtedly Jean Silva’ who put Melsik Baghdasaryan away with verve and flair in the first round to put the rest of the featherweight division on notice.
And the main card kicked off with a three-round war between Alonzo Menifield and Julius Walker, with Menifield taking the victory via split decision after a 15-minute scrap that earned both men $50,000 cheques for the Fight of the Night.
The preliminary card produced a feast of finishes, with all six fights claiming inside the distance victories for their respective winners.
Former Cage Warriors light heavyweight champion Modestas Bukauskas got the night underway with a blistering first-round finish of Raffael Cerqueira, and his knockout win was followed by a pair of second-round TKOs, as Nursulton Ruziboev stopped Eric McConico, and former Bellator middleweight title challenger, turned UFC welterweight prospect Austin Vanderford claimed a second-round TKO on his UFC debut against Nikolay Veretennikov.
Ricky Simon shone in his home state as he handed Javid Basharat the first loss of his career with a crushing knockout, and there was a come-from-behind win for the impressive middleweight prospect Mansur Abdul-Malik.
Melquizael Costa shocked the fans, and Andre Fili, with a first-round guillotine choke finish in their featherweight contest, then, in a wild scrap to round off the prelims, Moldova’s Ion Cutelaba submitted Turkish knockout artist Ibo Aslan via first-round arm-triangle choke.
UFC Seattle: Official results
MAIN CARD
- Song Yadong def. Henry Cejudo via technical decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
- Anthony Hernandez def. Brendan Allen via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Rob Font def. Jean Matsumoto via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Jean Silva def. Melsik Baghdasaryan via TKO (punches and elbows) – Round 1, 4:15
- Alonzo Menifield def. Julius Walker via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Ion Cutelaba def. Ibo Aslan via submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 1, 2:51
- Melquizael Costa def. Andre Fili via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 4:30
- Mansur Abdul-Malik def. Nick Klein via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 3:24
- Ricky Simon def. Javid Basharat via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 3:58
- Austin Vanderford def. Nikolay Veretennikov via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:13
- Nursulton Ruziboev def. Eric McConico via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 0:33
- Modestas Bukauskas def. Raffael Cerqueira via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 2:12
