This is why all champions should follow the Tim Sylvia method of wearing your belt at all times.
There’s a lot of champs losing their belts in the UFC these days, whether in the cage to challengers or via the promotion stripping them away. Now you can add Henry Cejudo to the list, although fortunately for him it’s just his physical belt that’s gone and not his status as champion.
The new flyweight champion came with the UFC to Moscow this weekend for their debut event in Russia, and while the travel accommodations themselves sound pretty posh, that didn’t save Cejudo from the indignity of having the airline or airport lose the bag with his championship belt.
”I was flying first class priority, but my luggage is lost at this point,” Cejudo told reporters in Moscow (video via MMANYTT). “Luckily the UFC took me shopping, they took me on a shopping spree and I got all kinds of clothes, but unfortunately my belt was in my luggage. So now on top of my gold medal, now I’ve lost my belt! I don’t know what it is about gold, I just can’t keep it! But we’re gonna find it, they’re looking for the bags now.”
As Cejudo mentioned, he also lost his Olympic gold medal during the California wildfires of October 2017. The hotel he was staying at for a celebrity fundraising event caught fire in the middle of the night, forcing Cejudo to jump off a second story balcony to escape the blaze.
The medal (earned at the 2008 Olympics in Freestyle wrestling) was lost, but will be replaced by the International Olympic Committee. We assume the UFC will also replace the belt if it doesn’t show up, which explains why Cejudo is pretty chill about everything.
“Let’s be honest, material comes and goes,” he said. “It’s the memories, it’s the legacy that comes with being a champion. I’m going to get a gold medal back, I’m going to get a belt back. But it’s the memories that come with that that makes it special.”