Henry Cejudo was about to leave the dais Wednesday after a half-hour at media day, where he discussed his fight against Merab Dvalishvili on Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on the main card of UFC 298, as well as his plans moving forward. He had laid the microphone on the table and appeared to be about to leave when a smile creased his face and a thought hit him.
He grabbed the mic and, for a brief moment, he again turned into "Triple C," his alter ego whom he loves to call "The King of Cringe."
"Guys, do me a favor," he said, beaming. "I want to know who is the greatest combat athlete of all-time." He then noted he should be on the Mount Rushmore of combat sports athletes.
That's a massive debate and a story for another time. There can be no debate, though, that if Cejudo, who in 2008 at the Beijing Olympic Games won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling, wins another UFC championship he will regarded as one of a small handful of the greatest fighters in MMA history.
Cejudo is 37 now and has fought once in nearly four years heading into Saturday's bout against Dvalishvili. Cejudo held the UFC's flyweight and bantamweight titles at one point and his stated goal is to add the featherweight championship. It will be monumentally difficult to pull that off if he were 27, in his athletic prime and had been fighting regularly, let alone now.
He's 37, hasn't been active and no one can be sure how much of a toll all of the competitions and the injuries have taken on his body. Special athletes, though, have a level that even the very good ones can't comprehend. And so when Cejudo discusses his goal of becoming the first three-division champion in UFC history, it just can't be laughed off. It's more than just the King of Cringe fooling around.
Will he do it? Probably not, but one would be foolish to completely dismiss the notion. Getting there would mean, at the least, defeating Dvalishvili and then the bantamweight champion first. If he's successful in those two bouts, then he'd have to beat whoever holds the featherweight crown.
"I'm probably going to get a lot of shit for this, but the goal is still [to win a championship at] 145 pounds," Cejudo said. "I've already conquered, already defeated the 135-pound weight. Yeah, I lost my last fight, split decision. The goal's still there. I'm not wavering from the goal of going up. I just feel like with a win over Merab, and then get the winner of Chito [Vera] and Sean [O'Malley, who fight March 9 in Miami for the bantamweight title] and then I want Volk [Alexander Volkanovski] or whoever has the 145-pound title. I feel like with my accolades and the merit that I've been able to do in combat sports, I don't think you could deny me."
UFC CEO Dana White isn't particularly high on Cejudo now, still irked all this time later that Cejudo retired after a win over Dominick Cruz on May 9, 2020, at UFC 249. Whether it was a negotiating play for a new contract, which seems likely, or that he was simply worn out, White didn't care for Cejudo's choice.
He noted that Cejudo was at the height of his powers when he walked away.
"This is all or nothing. I said to the team, 'Hey guys, it's either gold or bust.' " -- Former UFC champion Henry Cejudo
"I think it was ridiculous that Henry Cejudo retired [in 2020]," White said. "If you retire, you should stay away and never come back. The guy retired when he was in his f*cking prime. I mean, he looked good. This is a big fight for both of these guys."
Here's where you have to give Cejudo credit. He lost to Aljamain Sterling on May 6 at UFC 288 by split decision in a fight he could have won. It was, undoubtedly, a close fight.
He needed surgery after that bout and is now back dreaming big yet again. But he's also heaping all sorts of pressure onto his shoulders. He heard what White had to say and so he called White's bluff. Essentially, he said if White thinks he made a mistake, he'll come back and prove that he's the best.
Still, the pressure is real and the task is enormous/ If he can't defeat Dvalishvili, the dream will end, he said, and he's walking away.
"This is all or nothing," Cejudo said. "I said to the team, 'Hey guys, it's either gold or bust. I either win it all or I'm not going to have it at all and I'm done. I'm out.' So I have put in the time and I put that pressure on me because I do take this sport seriously. People said, 'Oh, you retired,' and I was like, 'Dude, I've done everything there is to do. What the f*ck do I gotta prove now?' Now, it's just a motivated by a little bit of anger. I'm pissed at myself a little bit."
He paused for a split second. He didn't clarify why he's angry at himself, presumably for retiring when he didn't need to do so, but he's passed that now.
"I'm still motivated," he said.
Nothing else needs to be said.