“Straight up discrimination”- Henry Cejudo reacts to GLORY terminating Russian fighters’ contracts

“Straight up discrimination”- Henry Cejudo reacts to GLORY terminating Russian fighters’ contracts

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Henry Cejudo stands against GLORY Kickboxing terminating contracts of all its Russian fighters.

GLORY Kickboxing recently announced that it has decided to terminate the contracts of all Russian fighters. The reason for this action being the political implications between Ukraine and Russia due to the war.

According to GLORY, this situation has created a lot of problems for it to deal with Russian athletes. Obstacles such as travel bans, safety concerns, and payment processing problems forced glory to take such decisions.

GLORY’s Executive Vice Chairman Scott Rudmann released a statement regarding the situation. He said :

“We’d like to deeply thank our Russian athletes for their cooperation during this challenging time and for their historic performances in our league. We value them as athletes, competitors, and friends, and this regrettable situation is not their fault. It’s not our fault either,” Rudman continued. “Hopefully this terrible war initiated by the Russian government will get resolved as quickly as possible, and Artem Vakhitov and other Russian fighters will be able to return to the GLORY ring where they will be welcomed.”

GLORY light heavyweight champion, Artem Vakhitov was also one of those whose contract got terminated. This paved way for top contenders, Luis Tavares and Sergej Maslobojev to fight each other for the gold. This fight is going to take place at the GLORY 81 co-main event, scheduled on August 20 inside CASTELLO Dusseldorf in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Read More: “Coach of The Year” Henry Cejudo basks in glory as Jiri Prochazka gains Light Heavyweight title in incredible UFC 275 bout

Henry Cejudo on the contract termination of Russian fighters in GLORY

Henry Cejudo x Gervonta Davis
Henry Cejudo

After the news above the contract termination broke out, Cejudo took the Twitter to share his opinions on the matter.

The former UFC double champion shared a new article and in the caption mentioned that sports and politics should be kept separated. Cejudo explained that sports act as bridges for peace between nations. According to Cejudo, the contract termination is a discriminatory act.


” We really need to separate sports and politics. Whatever happen to peace through sports bridging the gap. This is straight up discrimination. #freerussianathletes,” wrote Cejudo.

Similarly to GLORY, other fight promotions such as UFC, Bellator etc have also faced similar problems with Russian fighters. Although, UFC has not done anything regarding the problem yet.

Also Read: “Body kick connected with righthand” – Henry Cejudo breaks down his performance against TJ Dillashaw from 2019