Henry Cejudo: the first Olympic champion to win a UFC title | Ultimate Fighter Reunion

Why fans still care

HENRY CEJUDO is the wrestler who went from Olympic gold to two UFC belts. He ended Demetrious Johnson’s record title run, then moved up and won the bantamweight belt as well.

After two MMA retirements he kept competing, in freestyle wrestling and then in a boxing ring.

Early life

He was born on 9 February 1987 in Los Angeles to Mexican immigrant parents, the second youngest of seven children. His mother, Nelly Rico, worked several jobs, including janitorial and construction work, to keep the family going. The family moved to Maryvale in Phoenix, where a wrestling coach let him join the team on one condition: he had to stop fighting. His brother Angel, 16 months older, went 152-0 with four state titles and was the one he looked up to.

Getting started

He won two Arizona state titles, then moved to the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and won two Colorado titles. In 2006 he was ASICS National High School Wrestler of the Year and became the first high school wrestler since 1983 to win the freestyle US Nationals. He won the 2007 Pan American Games and three Pan American Championships.

On 19 August 2008 in Beijing he won Olympic gold at 55 kg, beating Japan’s Tomohiro Matsunaga in the final. At 21 he was the youngest American Olympic wrestling champion at the time, a record Kyle Snyder broke in 2016. After finishing fifth at the 2012 Olympic Trials he left wrestling and won the Arizona Copper Gloves boxing tournament.

Career chapters

1. 2008Olympic gold in Beijing
2. 2013Professional MMA debut in Tucson
3. 2014UFC debut in Phoenix
4. 2016Loses to Demetrious Johnson at UFC 197
5. 2018Beats Johnson for the UFC flyweight title
6. 2019Stops T.J. Dillashaw in 32 seconds, then wins the bantamweight title
7. 2020Defends against Dominick Cruz and retires in the cage
8. 2023 to 2025Comeback, then retires again
9. 2026RAF freestyle champion and a boxing debut

Into MMA 2013 to 2017

He turned professional on 2 March 2013 at World Fighting Federation, Pascua Yaqui Fights 4 at the Casino del Sol in Tucson, stopping Michael Poe in the first round. He won his first six fights, then made his UFC debut in Phoenix on 13 December 2014 with a decision over Dustin Kimura. He started 10-0. Demetrious Johnson stopped him with knees to the body at UFC 197 in April 2016, and Joseph Benavidez beat him on a split decision that December. He came back in 2017 with wins over Wilson Reis and Sergio Pettis.

Champion 2018 to 2020

On 4 August 2018 at UFC 227 at the Staples Center he met Johnson again for the flyweight title. He rolled his ankle early and was cut in the third, but kept taking Johnson down late in rounds, including with 1:15 left in the fifth. He won a split decision and ended Johnson’s record run of 11 title defences. “This is a dream come true, from Olympic gold medalist to UFC champion,” he said.

On 19 January 2019 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn he stopped T.J. Dillashaw in 32 seconds on the UFC’s first ESPN+ card. ESPN reported that the UFC had considered closing the flyweight division. On 8 June 2019 at UFC 238 in Chicago he lost the first round to Marlon Moraes’s leg kicks, then took over with knees from the clinch and stopped him in the third for the vacant bantamweight title. That made him the fourth fighter to hold two UFC titles at once, after Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier and Amanda Nunes, Who’s Who number 6.

On 9 May 2020 at UFC 249 in Jacksonville he dropped Dominick Cruz with a knee and finished him at 4:58 of the second round. Then he took off his gloves in the cage. “I’ve done enough in the sport,” he said.

Comeback 2023 to 2025

He came back in 2023 and lost a split decision to Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight title at UFC 288. Losses followed to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 298 in 2024 and to Song Yadong in Seattle in 2025, a technical decision after an accidental eye poke. On 6 December 2025 at UFC 323 in Las Vegas he lost a decision to Payton Talbott and retired again at 38. “Payton is the future, man,” he said.

Wrestling and boxing 2026

In 2026 he went back to wrestling with Real American Freestyle. He beat Urijah Faber 11-0 by technical fall in February. In July he led Dvalishvili 8-0 and lost 11-8, and in August in Cleveland he pinned him in 36 seconds to win the inaugural RAF Lightweight Crossover title. On 26 September 2026 at the James L. Knight Center in Miami he made his pro boxing debut on a Misfits card and beat Javon Walton on a split decision.

Style, technique and the corner

How he fights

He fought orthodox, and UFC.com lists wrestling as his style, the double leg as his favourite technique and the power jab as his favourite strike. He won close rounds with late takedowns, as he did against Johnson in 2018. He could finish fast with pressure, as against Dillashaw, and he used clinch knees and ground strikes to break Moraes. UFC.com puts his takedown defence at 72 per cent and his striking accuracy at 47 per cent.

Teams and gyms

He fought out of Fight Ready in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his longtime coach Eric Albarracin. For the UFC 298 camp he worked with Everton Lopes on striking and Guillermo “Memo” Torres and Josh Kramer on wrestling.

Stories people still tell

1. The lost medal.

   On 9 October 2017 he was at a fundraiser in Santa Rosa when wildfires swept Northern California. He burned his right foot getting out, and his Olympic gold medal was lost.

2. The book.

   In 2010 he published American Victory: Wrestling, Dreams and a Journey Toward Home, written with Bill Plaschke.

3. Any weight, any colour.

   He has said wrestling “gives opportunity to any weight, any color, any culture.”

Legacy

Guinness recognises him as the first athlete to win an Olympic and a UFC world title. He was a two-division UFC champion and is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. ESPN ranked him number 3 pound for pound before UFC 249.