Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports
I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but if I’m going to experiment with hallucinogenics, I would probably pick someone other than Mike Tyson, just in case things went awry and the former heavyweight boxing champion started swinging at imaginary monsters.
Not that Tyson needs DMT for that, but you catch my drift.
That scenario didn’t seem to bother former UFC bantamweight titleholder Henry Cejudo, who tasted the toad on some tropical island in the Caribbean. And as “Triple C” explained to UFC color commentator Joe Rogan, the result was nothing short of life-changing.
“I go up, and I do it, and man it took me to a … especially out of retirement here, I almost kind of wanted some answers,” Cejudo said (transcribed by Heavy.com). “I was hoping that it would give me like, ‘Okay man, this is the path,’ and it took me to my mom’s first love, man. It showed me, almost like in a movie, you know, how I was born, how my mom had me, how by the time I was 8 years old I had my sister so I was no longer the youngest. How my mom somewhat pushed me to the side, leaving home at the age of 17 and substituting my mom’s love for self-fulfillment, wrestling.”
Cejudo, who won an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, held championship titles at both flyweight and bantamweight but called it quits after demolishing Dominick Cruz in the UFC 249 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event last month in Jacksonville, Florida.
“I feel like the toad is probably one of the best things that’s happened to me,” Cejudo said. “Honestly, because it makes you realize and reflect on what truly matters. It was something scary in some ways because it takes you out of your body. It’s almost like you’re in judgment day and you’re the one being convicted and you’re the judge, too. It’s like you’re so dead that you’re alive.”
Tito Ortiz could not have said it better.
Not everyone in the combat sports community is convinced that Cejudo will stay retired and “Triple C” recently laid out circumstances that would prompt his return to MMA action. It just boils down to dollars and cents … and the unlikely support of this guy.