(Henry Cejudo [right] roughs up Dustin Kimura during their fight at UFC on FOX 13. / Photo via Getty)
After winning his UFC debut at bantamweight last month, Henry Cejudo has decided to throw caution to the wind and return to flyweight for his next bout. The 2008 Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medalist will meet former flyweight title challenger Chris Cariaso at UFC 185: Pettis vs. Dos Anjos (March 14th, Dallas), according to UFC officials.
Which begs the question: Why mess with a good thing? Why not see how far you can get at bantamweight before putting your career and health at risk once again chasing 125? From what we can gather, Cejudo’s TKO win over flyweight super-jobber Miguelito Marti at Gladiator Challenge: American Dream in May 2013 was the only time that Cejudo has ever successfully made 125 pounds in an MMA fight. And now he’s going to try again, God help him, while taking a gigantic step up in competition against one of the top ten flyweights in the world. What?
(Henry Cejudo [right] roughs up Dustin Kimura during their fight at UFC on FOX 13. / Photo via Getty)
After winning his UFC debut at bantamweight last month, Henry Cejudo has decided to throw caution to the wind and return to flyweight for his next bout. The 2008 Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medalist will meet former flyweight title challenger Chris Cariaso at UFC 185: Pettis vs. Dos Anjos (March 14th, Dallas), according to UFC officials.
Which begs the question: Why mess with a good thing? Why not see how far you can get at bantamweight before putting your career and health at risk once again chasing 125? From what we can gather, Cejudo’s TKO win over flyweight super-jobber Miguelito Marti at Gladiator Challenge: American Dream in May 2013 was the only time that Cejudo has ever successfully made 125 pounds in an MMA fight. And now he’s going to try again, God help him, while taking a gigantic step up in competition against one of the top ten flyweights in the world. What?
Anyway, Chris Cariaso hasn’t competed since being submitted by Demetrious Johnson in the main event of UFC 178 last September, snapping a three-fight win streak for “Kamikaze.” UFC 185 will be headlined by a lightweight title fight, and will also feature a heavyweight smash-up between Alistair Overeem and Roy Nelson.
After a plain bizarre string on no-shows, weigh-in flubs and general flakiness, it looks like we might finally see 2008 Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo step foot into the octagon (but probably not).
Not many of us saw Cejudo’s signing with the UFC coming when it was announced back in July. When it was simultaneously announced that Cejudo would be facing Scott Jorgensen — an upper-level fighter in any weight class — at flyweight — a weight which Cejudo had failed to make in both of his previous appearances in Legacy FC — we were all but guaranteed a weigh-in day fiasco from the former Olympian.
And right on cue, it happened. Here’s what we wrote then:
His flyweight career over before it ever began, Cejudo was forced to move up to bantamweight by Dana White himself and now has his UFC debut booked for realzies this time. Find out who he’ll be facing after the jump.
(Photo via Getty)
After a plain bizarre string on no-shows, weigh-in flubs and general flakiness, it looks like we might finally see 2008 Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo step foot into the octagon (but probably not).
Not many of us saw Cejudo’s signing with the UFC coming when it was announced back in July. When it was simultaneously announced that Cejudo would be facing Scott Jorgensen — an upper-level fighter in any weight class — at flyweight — a weight which Cejudo had failed to make in both of his previous appearances in Legacy FC — we were all but guaranteed a weigh-in day fiasco from the former Olympian.
And right on cue, it happened. Here’s what we wrote then:
His flyweight career over before it ever began, Cejudo was forced to move up to bantamweight by Dana White himself and now has his UFC debut booked for realzies this time. Find out who he’ll be facing after the jump.
AZ Central reports that Cejudo will now take on Dustin Kimura in a bantamweight contest at UFC on FOX: dos Santos vs. Miocic, which goes down in Cejudo’s native Phoenix on December 13th.
Kimura is an even 2-2 in his UFC career, having picked up submission wins over guys you haven’t heard of (Chico Camus, Jon Delos Reyes) and consistently come up short against those you have heard of (Mitch Gagnon, George Roop). Using the almighty power of MMA Math, I am going to bet the ranch that Kimura wins this one by forfeit at 5:00 in the second round the day before the weigh-ins. Any takers?
Dana White lobbed a financial insult at Renan Barao in the wake of UFC 177.
In case you’ve been away from the Internet for the last few days: The main event of UFC 177 was supposed to be bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao–an unnecessary rematch of their bout from May. Barao botched his weight cut, which caused him to fall and hit his head in the shower. He was rushed to the hospital and couldn’t fight. Weight cutting is a serious health issue, but Dana White and the UFC apparently don’t care.
Insults to the ego are one thing, insults to the wallet are another. The former is naught but the buzzing of flies, but the latter stings like Head and Shoulders in the eye. Renan Barao will probably get over Joe Rogan essentially calling him an embarrassment to himself and the UFC. But will Barao get over Dana White refusing to pay him his show money? Because that’s what Dana White is doing. He’s not paying Barao.
(Photo via Getty.)
Dana White lobbed a financial insult at Renan Barao in the wake of UFC 177.
In case you’ve been away from the Internet for the last few days: The main event of UFC 177 was supposed to be bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao–an unnecessary rematch of their bout from May. Barao botched his weight cut, which caused him to fall and hit his head in the shower. He was rushed to the hospital and couldn’t fight. Weight cutting is a serious health issue, but Dana White and the UFC apparently don’t care.
Insults to the ego are one thing, insults to the wallet are another. The former is naught but the buzzing of flies, but the latter stings like Head and Shoulders in the eye. Renan Barao will probably get over Joe Rogan essentially calling him an embarrassment to himself and the UFC. But will Barao get over Dana White refusing to pay him his show money? Because that’s what Dana White is doing. He’s not paying Barao.
“Barao’s not making any money,” Dana White said at the post-UFC 177 media scrum. “I’m not paying Barao. Barao showed up and didn’t fight.”
Henry Cejudo, who also messed up his weight cut and couldn’t fight, did not get paid. In the scrum, White referred to Cejudo as a “kid.”
First: Don’t call an OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST “kid.” That’s denigrating and stupid.
Second: What the fuck, Dana?
So Cejudo and Barao don’t get paid for draining their bodies of precious nutrients because Dana White is mad at them? It wouldn’t be a shameful Dana White moment without weapons-grade hypocrisy.
That turned out to be a wise move, because at least the UFC doesn’t have to scramble to replace yet another main card bout for Saturday’s event. On the other hand, UFC 177 now features just nine fights, and is made up of 38.9% non-wiki fighters, which is friggin’ awful. (UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs. Le still holds the modern non-wiki record, at 65%, but at least that card didn’t come with a $55 price tag.)
We can’t tell whether Cejudo’s struggles are purely physical — as in, he should really be competing at bantamweight, and his body is rebelling against him — or psychological, as past critiques of his motivation and commitment have suggested. Maybe he saw this GIF and got nervous. At any rate, it’s possible that this MMA thing just isn’t for Henry Cejudo, at least not at the highest level.
The UFC doesn’t share our misgivings about Cejudo. They just signed the 2008 Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medal winner. They also booked him in a fight against a proven quantity in Scott Jorgensen.
Cejudo is 6-0 over Wikipedia-less jobbers. His most recent fight was back in January–a flyweight fight where he missed weight by three pounds. Jorgensen, too is coming off a victory. He defeated Danny Martinez at UFC Fight Night 42. Prior to that, he had dropped three fights straight.
This is an interesting signing, Potato Nation.
The biggest question is whether Cejudo can mentally cope with the big leagues. Judging by the fact that he had trouble dealing with the likes of Legacy FC, we’re not optimistic.
However, the UFC is willing to take the risk–and why not? The flyweight division is devoid of anyone that can even remotely be considered a draw. And, as Luke Thomas noted, Cejudo’s ability to speak Spanish would be a boon to the UFC’s efforts in Latin America provided he string a few wins together.
But even if Cejudo loses, it doesn’t matter. This fight is taking place on UFC 177–the card TJ Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao is headlining–so it’s unlikely anyone will see it happen.
Far be it from us to knock an Olympic wrestler for his lack of work ethic, but we’ve begun to notice an alarming and depressing trend in the MMA career of Henry Cejudo. Mainly, that he has more or less flaked out of his last four scheduled fights under the Legacy Fighting Championships banner, and even worse, the fights he actually did show up for in that time, he did at a significantly reduced payrate due to his inability to make weight.
Could it be that Cejudo has some dire life circumstance to tend to, like Rousimar Palhares and his sick mother? It’s possible, but the much more likely scenario is that Cejudo lacks either the time or the commitment to make 125 lbs, even as far out from the fight as he is, and has withdrawn in a last ditch attempt to save his rapidly descending reputation in the MMA world.
(Photo via The Gazette.)
Far be it from us to knock an Olympic wrestler for his lack of work ethic, but we’ve begun to notice an alarming and depressing trend in the MMA career of Henry Cejudo. Mainly, that he has more or less flaked out of his last four scheduled fights under the Legacy Fighting Championships banner, and even worse, the fights he actually did show up for in that time, he did at a significantly reduced payrate due to his inability to make weight.
Could it be that Cejudo has some dire life circumstance to tend to, like Rousimar Palhares and his sick mother? It’s possible, but the much more likely scenario is that Cejudo lacks either the time or the commitment to make 125 lbs, even as far out from the fight as he is, and has withdrawn in a last ditch attempt to save his rapidly descending reputation in the MMA world.
For the youngest American wrestler to win a gold medal in Olympic history, weight-cutting issues seem especially uncharacteristic. Wrestlers have long been lauded for their almost unparalleled discipline when it comes to cutting weight — just look at how Daniel Cormier was able to make the drop to light heavyweight after years of weight mismanagement — and for a guy of Cejudo’s caliber, it’s simply inexcusable.
But sadly, it appears that Cejudo’s professional career has been on a downswing ever since his comeback attempt in the 2012 Olympic Trials, where his lack of motivation was immediately noticeable to those who knew him best (via BloodyElbow):
Between the 2008 Olympics and the 2012 trials, Cejudo was off the mat for almost two and a half years. He did not engage in training for a second Olympic title until February of 2011. This is an awful long time, particularly considering that all of Henry’s strongest competition was spending that time competing for world championships.
When Henry first came back to training he announced his intent to train at the regional training center (RTC) at The University of Iowa with Coach Terry Brands.
Terry Brands is a distinguished figure in the wrestling world. Brands has won world championships, an Olympic bronze medal, and as an Olympic Training Center resident coach he was largely responsible for molding Henry Cejudo into an Olympic champion. Terry and Henry had grown close during Cejudo’s gold medal run and a number of publications describe Brands as a father figure to Henry.
When considering a athlete/coach relationship woven so tightly, it was particularly alarming to hear reports in July of 2011 that Cejudo left the Iowa RTC due to Brands disapproval over the time Henry was spending in his commercial ventures.
After leaving Iowa, Cejudo briefly trained at Ohio State’s RTC, but citing homesickness, Henry left to spend the bulk of his Olympic trials preparation residing in Arizona and away from any elite wrestling training sites. Almost all wrestlers serious about qualifying for an Olympic team reside at a regional training center or the Olympic Training Center in Colorado (or both). Cejudo spent his crunch time preparation for the trials working out at The Training Room, a strength and conditioning facility in Scottsdale run by Brian Davis, a former NFL defensive back. (when asked about Cejudo’s preparations for the trials, Davis’s response was somewhat…odd.)
Henry’s unusual choices in training arrangements, when combined with the mixed results at the only three competitive wrestling events he attended before the trials, led some in the wrestling world to doubt if he would even be in attendance in Iowa City for the Olympic trials.
It was at those Olympic Trials that Cejudo would be defeated by top-seeded Nick Simmons in the semifinals before throwing his shoes into the crowd, a symbolic gesture of his retirement from wrestling at just 25 years of age.
So what has been behind Cejudo’s fall from grace? Some say that he has become too preoccupied with the public persona he has built over the years, and the litany of high-profile endorsement deals, book deals, and even play deals that have followed. Others say that the neuro-linguistic programming outfit Cejudo has become involved with, Champion by Design, has all but brainwashed the kid with new-age, self-help gobbledygook.
It’s hard to tell, but one thing’s for certain: Cejudo has dropped out of yet another fight, and is well on his way to becoming perhaps the biggest bust in MMA history. And what a shame it would be for a self-described, “kid who grew up in poverty, a son of Mexican immigrants that came to the United States with a dream.” Not that success in a mid-level MMA promotion is comparable to Olympic glory, but still, it would have been nice to see what could have been.
