Issue 139
March 2016
A lifetime of competing has prepared Henry Cejudo for the next shot at UFC gold, which the untouchable flyweight wants to add to his Olympic medal.
Henry Cejudo turns off toward downtown Colorado Springs, making his way to the Olympic Training Center where he prepared for the Beijing Games in 2008, he rolls down his window and spots a 300ft mural on the side of the freeway featuring his face, paying tribute to the fact he’s the youngest Olympic gold medalist in US wrestling history.
When an athlete is honored with a statue or a mural, it’s usually after the end of their career journey. They’ve made it. But not in this case. After all, Cejudo’s just getting started on his next mission: to become UFC flyweight champion and write his name in the record books once again.
Standing in his way is the seemingly impervious Demetrious Johnson, who after seven UFC title defenses has climbed near the top of any legit pound-for-pound rankings list. In fact, ‘Mighty Mouse’ is a champion many consider to be the best fighter in the world today.
Yet in the eyes of Cejudo at least, the UFC number one remains a ‘B-standard’ operator. “DJ is a gamer, he’s what you call a mixed martial artist, he knows how to mix all his fighting skills and he’s a very smart and intelligent fighter,” the 29-year-old explains to FO.
“I just believe I have the base that will control a lot of that. I have good defense and I can slip punches. I’ll wrestle when I have to, I have good clinch work and I believe those are the areas that I will capitalize on. Demetrious is so well rounded, but in those areas I’m an A-standard and he’s a B-standard.”
After defeating the division’s number-three-ranked guy, Jussier Formiga, in Mexico City in November, Cejudo has been touted as the next challenger to Johnson’s crown. The split-decision victory was only his 10th MMA fight, but it was also the first time his perfect undefeated record has even come remotely under threat.
In a weight class that’s often dismissed as shallow, some say Cejudo is being rushed into a fight with Johnson because there’s a lack of other contenders. But the Olympic phenom isn’t your ordinary 10-0 prospect. He’s been competing his entire life and accomplished far more than most grapplers would even dare to dream of.
“I really do believe I’m the toughest guy at 125lb in the world. I put myself at the top, but that’s yet to be proven because I’ve yet to beat the guy who they call number one,” Cejudo concedes. “In my eyes I always train like I’m second, but in my heart I know I’m number one. I’m a competitor, I love to compete and my goal is to win a world title at 125lb and then slowly start to move up to bantamweight and do the same there.”
Johnson, while immensely popular with fellow fighters and MMA purists, hasn’t been able to generate much attention to the lightest men’s division in the UFC. As a result, many fighters on the roster have been vocal about his failure in that regard, including flyweight contenders Ian McCall and John Dodson. Yet both have failed in their own attempts to claim the belt and take that responsibility.
Cejudo has his own thoughts too, on the lack of fans that are attracted to 125lb: “Some of the responsibility lies with the UFC as well because rather than pushing and marketing two or three people they should market other fighters and their story. If they can market someone and come up with a storyline it will change the weight class.”
Perhaps Cejudo’s is something they can get behind. His story began as a painful one in a broken-down trailer park in Los Angeles – where his mother Nelly Rico brought her six children from Mexico for a better life in the US. But from those humble origins Henry became a walking banner for the American Dream.
As the Cejudos traveled from state to state in search of work, eventually teenage Henry found solace on the wrestling mats along with older brother Angel. Soon enough he was invited by Dave Bennett – the national development freestyle coach for USA Wrestling – to spend most of his formative years in Colorado Springs training at the Olympic facility.
While attending the program he doubled his Arizona State Wrestling Championships tally to four, graduating with a record of 120-3. Then, after becoming the first high schooler to win US Nationals, he added the prize every amateur athlete dreams of in China.
“I struggled as a little kid and we struggled as a family as a whole but I believe all that stuff has helped build my character,” he tells FO. “I’ve won fights in the UFC, I’ve become an Olympic gold medalist but at the same time I’m greedy in some ways because I want to push my mind, my body and my soul as much as I can and see how far I can push it.
“You have to be a hungry athlete and a hungry person to succeed. It’s crucial. It’s vital. Some people think they’ve made it or say they want to make it, or they think they’re already there. But when you can be hungry every day and pretend it’s your first day on the wrestling mat or in the cage every time, that’s something special. I believe that’s something I have and I don’t see it in a lot of competitors.”
But despite his hunger, Cejudo has taken his time in the sport and not rushed into anything. He reveals he was offered a title fight when he first came to the UFC in 2014 from Legacy Fighting Championship, but the Olympian wanted a couple of tune-up fights first to make sure he was ready.
And that’s despite a set of skills that mean he’s as well-rounded as they come. Cejudo also competed in amateur boxing for three years and won the Arizona Copper Gloves, beating the Golden Gloves champion along the way. That’s the perfect compliment to his gold-medal-winning wrestling skills, which give him the perfect foundation for his new sport.
He says: “MMA training compliments wrestling. Besides, MMA and wrestling are the closest things to an actual street fight. When you add elbows, knees, submissions and punches it’s the icing on the cake because you don’t have to pin them, you can use all these different limbs to stop your opponent. But wrestling is such a grind, it’s not even like sport. It’s in its own category.
“I’m out at the Olympic training center now, and I’m being tossed around left and right doing this Greco style that I’m not used to. It’s a sport that will humble you and you can’t take time off or have the attitude that you can beat somebody because you’ll get knocked down.
“Anyone that doesn’t think wrestling is the best base for MMA is just anti-wrestling (laughs). Wrestling has proven time and again that it’s the toughest and greatest base to have – better than Muay Thai, boxing and jiu-jitsu. Just look at the stats and look at the numbers.”
But the only number Cejudo is concerned about is being number one in 2016 and becoming the first-ever Olympic gold medalist to hold a UFC championship.
Medalist mentor
‘Captain’ Eric Albarracin couldn’t be prouder
“I lived at the Olympic Training Facility for 10 years and while I was there I met a young kid called Henry Cejudo,” Albarracin recalls. “He was just a sophomore in high school when he first came there and I was like a big brother to him. Me and him were with each other a lot those four years, I trained with him, I mentored him and he went on to win the Olympic gold.
“More than any accomplishment I have I love to tell that story because I got to witness it. It wasn’t so much what I told him to do, it was more what I told him I did wrong. I told him, ‘Don’t do the same thing I did.’ He became the youngest Olympic gold medalist in history and now he’s undefeated in the UFC and if he wins that championship he will become the greatest combat sports athlete ever.
“When people ask about me, I talk about Henry because that’s something I hold dear to my heart: that I got to witness a young kid from Arizona like me, who become an American icon.”
Speed thrills
Flies are just too quick!
“The flyweight division is the fastest weight class in the UFC,” Cejudo insists. “Sometimes it’s so fast people don’t even see what happens. In my last fight, I kicked Jussier Formiga in the face and because the kick was so fast I feel like the crowd didn’t even recognize it!”
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