MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Henry Cejudo Resume Review | UFC 288: Sterling-Cejudo | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell sit down for a resume review of Henry Cejudo ahead of his UFC 288 title fight with Aljamain Sterling. The guys go through Henry's Olympic run, His early struggles in the UFC and him breaking through to become a double champ. Where does Henry Cejudo rank among the all-time greats? (00:00:00) - Intro (00:10:20) - Pre UFC Run (00:13:50) - Dustin Kimura (00:20:20) - Chris Cariaso (00:21:30) - Chico Camus (00:24:20) - Jussier Formiga (00:28:30) - Demetrious Johnson 1 (00:34:20) - Joseph Benavidez (00:40:20) - Wilson Reis (00:45:40) - Sergio Pettis (00:50:30) - Demetrious Johnson 2 (00:58:50) - TJ Dillashaw (01:06:10) - Marlon Moraes (01:20:25) - Dominick Cruz (01:25:00) - Final Thoughts Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

on may 6th at ufc 288 in newark new jersey at the prudential center oh the bed bugs will be in attendance but we're not here to talk about that we're here to talk about something actually a lot more interesting it is the return of triple c henry suhudo returns to reclaim the bantamweight title when he fights Aljamain Sterling in the main event on pay-per-view. And BC, what a great opportunity to not merely talk about that fight to some extent, which we will, but really reflect on his journey to get here. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Morning Combat Henry Cejudo resume review.

My name is Luke Thomas, as I indicated, one half of your hosting duo, joined by the gentleman who is the king of Connecticut. It is Brian Campbell. Hello, Brian Campbell. Yeah, fired up to be here, Luke. I've got a message to you from the messenger in this exercise of going so intimate with one fighter. You know what I love about it, Luke? Obviously, in a short digestive period,

it allows you a reminder of how somebody became who they are, how great they were at certain points, especially early on that allowed that ability to grow. But also sometimes we can reframe how we thought of them on the way up just the same. overly penalized when talking about the legacy, the growing legacy of Henry Cejudo, that he was an opportunistic fighter who took advantage of multiple opportunities that allowed him, let's say, a quicker shot at calling himself the greatest or one of the greatest than he necessarily had earned. And while that's still somewhat true, that way of thinking completely discounts the fact that he's also one of the greatest mixed martial artists in the history of this sport. And obviously when you put the Olympic glory of wrestling with that, he becomes some kind of, you know, combat sports, Jim Thorpe,

folk hero. But I want to say that what I loved about this was going back and realizing that, yeah, he did lean on good opportunity, getting to fight Dillashaw, weight drain, that those kinds of things to stamp his passport. He was also ready, willing, and able to become what he needed to be at each one of those key closeup moments. A true living legend here, Luke, that, that, that to be honest, does not get the love he actually, actually deserves. I had a similar response to going back and reviewing the fights that we had to review for today's video. And I took away a number of things, many of the ones you did as well, but also just, again, on a very basic level, just his technical maturation as a fighter. And we'll talk about this where his last few fights, he didn't win at all with wrestling. He won it almost exclusively

with striking and did against the very toughest foes of his career in general. Again, there are some obviously mitigating circumstances there. A guy who's been a dynamic athlete since I ever first heard his name. Speaking of which, BC, do you recall, do you remember the 2008 Olympic Games? Do you remember Henry Cejudo becoming something of a relatively popular figure? Yeah, I followed it from arm's length, but I certainly knew of him was following the journey, but I didn't necessarily watch. Should we have seen back then the signs that something like this was possible, Luke, having followed the journey? Yes and no. I mean, on the one hand, he really was remarkable. Like folks sometimes ask, like, how did Henry Cejudo do in collegiate wrestling?

And the answer is he was so good, he never even went to college for wrestling. He went to the Olympics and won a gold medal fresh out of high school. It's just bonkers to even think about. He was a four-time state champion wrestler in high school across two different high schools, which tells you his level of consistent excellence. Then he tries out for the senior national team. He makes it and then goes to the Olympics. And here is the story as best I understand it from folks who covered amateur wrestling at the time. What they said was that he was obviously very, very good. And to make the team in which he did was like remarkable. And of course he's a stud athlete,

but they also said he was not necessarily expected to win that tournament that year in his weight class. And he kind of had the tournament of his life. I think in all of his Olympic matches to metal, he was down early after the first period and had to rally every single time and did including in the gold medal match. So it's a combination of being this incredible prodigious talent. And even then BC rising to the occasion to capture Olympic glory in the gold medal match. So it's a combination of being this incredible prodigious talent and even then, BC, rising to the occasion

to capture Olympic glory in the end. I mean, he has gold medal poise throughout key spots in his pro MMA career that it only makes sense you revealing some of those journeys. Because there's one thing I want to say before we start the fight-by-fight journey the the mixed martial artist he became that sometimes again even though he gets his sort of pound for pound recognition sometimes his legacy is in debate it's hard to really put a firm handle given the shortness of it but also i mean he got a chance to become a two division

champion very early some would say before someone of that caliber had earned it. Yeah. When you go back and you combine it all, look, he became like an efficient problem solver as a fighter who already had that. Like, I know how to win. I must win. I'll figure it out. But the fact that when he needed to the Maraish fight, a big example we'll get into, like

he had the stones to dig in and survive a war if necessary. But he only became great because he didn't need to survive on that because he was constantly just like not without setbacks, not without fighting for the title once and losing before coming back and finally winning that against DJ. But like he's a fighting genius. Like you figure this out quickly going fight by fight back and reliving this journey and seeing mentally poise wise where he was in his UFC debut which is one year after turning pro he had six fights on the regional scene but like he can see things his opponents can't but he's like a punching chemist with like the steady hands of a surgeon out there like he really became a special special fighter that it does make you go man I get where you went with the triple c gimmick the the embracing the cringe i get at key points in the post-fight interviews of these wins he's

talking about how much he feels like he's not getting paid but him leaning on the cringe fun gimmick does take away from the art and the greatness and the shine that he should get as an american hero like there's randy couture vibes at times that come out of him where you're just like, that's a, no matter what, no matter the injuries, no matter what is ahead of you, that guy figures out how to win fights at the, at the super elite level. That's like a superhero power. And I wish we talked about that more than talking about the corny videos and

him in a diaper and like that type of BS. And look, maybe it's a chase for money. Maybe that's just his real personality. And he said, and he's having fun. People tell me the same thing, Luke, I'm morning combat. You know what I mean? Yes, they do. They do. I have to tell you, I feel like, you know, whether you like the gimmick or whether you

like the way in which he has steered his career, both the retirement early and then the return. And to your point, some of the gimmicks he was doing, um, I, I, here's one thing I picked up on and we'll get this a little bit later, and then we'll start the conversation, just as a broad thing about what I learned from this experience. I feel like he is finally, I mean, I don't know about the retirement part, because that does seem, to your point you raised, BC, very much related to the money he was getting.

I remember him retiring after the Cruz fight and making it very much about the money he wasn't getting, and it just wasn't worth it. I forgot that he said that after the Dill and making it very much about the money he wasn't getting. And, you know, it just wasn't worth it. I forgot that he said that after the Dillashaw fight as well. Hey, Hunter Campbell. Hey, Dana White. We got to have a meeting because Triple C or whatever he called himself at the time wants to get paid. But the thing that also stands out to me, too, is he kind of, I think, leaned more on his American identity over time.

Even in the Formiga fight, which took place in Mexico. I remember before that, like right before he made his MMA intentions clear, he was at like the, not the Latin Grammys, but some kind of like the Latin version of some award for athletes. And I remember Pau Gasol gave him an award for whatever the category was. And he answered, he flew it in Spanish and he told the ladies in spanish don't worry i'm also single he had this real kind of embracing two worlds at once and over time actually i think he moved away from that he named his daughter america in 2021 he didn't he doesn't have the aztec imagery anymore and you know whether the cringes relate to that or not or merely a means to an end you

can decide what i mean to say is through it all, I think to your point, he really found his identity as a fighter, his gift for it, and also who he wants to be, who he wants to represent himself as, what worlds he wants to cross or be a part of and not, and it all got much more comfortable. The NBC, I have to tell you, cards on the table here. I am glad he's back, but he's 36 years of age at 135 pounds, and I worry stopping fighting at 33 and now coming back at 36,

we missed a couple of really special years we could have had. I don't know if we're going to have them. I guess we'll see you on Saturday. No, I do have that same lament about who he could have escalated and fought because after his last UFC fight and the break, I mean, he was talking in that post-fight interview about moving up to 145 and fighting for another title. So it's like, it's weird. It's like, I get where he was talking in that post fight interview about moving up to 145 and fighting for another title. So it's like it's weird. It's like I get where I could cloud my judgment at times about him as an opportunist.

But the part about being such a genius opportunist is he not only had the performance he needed each time he took a risk or forced himself into a really big fight. But he always had that next step on the microphone about business wise, what this should lead to or maximization of his opportunities here to call himself one of the greatest. Like whether he did that too early or too cringy at times, he also had like calculated plans on how to get here. So anyone else, I'd be nervous, but he's that rare breed that allowed GSP to come back after five years and win the middleweight title or allowed Dom Cruz to still be fighting today. He does seem to be, have that next level mental toughness, but mental intelligence on as well to, uh, we're going to see a new version of Cejudo, but I expect it to be a brilliant one. I really do. And that's a shout out just the same too, to the captain, Eric Elberacin. Now what's so interesting is about as gifted as he became and

I share Brian's opinion I think he is truly you know obviously he was great in wrestling but what he's turned into an MMA or what we saw lastly in 2020 certainly has been just a a guy built for this but it was it did not get started off on the greatest of notes I don't know if a lot of folks remember this so to your point BC he made his MMA debut in March 2nd of 2013 on the greatest of notes, I don't know if a lot of folks remember this. So to your point, BC, he made his MMA debut in March 2nd of 2013 on the regional scene. He doesn't fight in the UFC until 2014. And what had happened was this had come off of him trying to make the Olympic team and the national team in 2012, failing quite miserably. He actually didn't get very far in the tournaments with the national tournament at all. He retires there and then he fully transitions over to MMA.

And part of the thing that got people a little bit nervous about him was a few things. One, he was training with Terry Brands, who is a famous coach at Iowa. I think he was an Olympic bronze medalist. He's won a million awards. The Brands brothers are famous in the world of coaching and in Iowa. And those two had a bond and he just left for like other places that didn't have elite wrestling talent of course it showed up in the 2012 tryouts he looked

quite poor in the end so that was kind of weird and then when he got into mma dude he was missing weight a lot i don't know if folks remember this yeah when he was fighting for legacy i think he had like six or seven bouts canceled during that time, missing weight badly at times. Mick Maynard, who is now one of the matchmakers at UFC, was a matchmaker at that time for legacy and nearly cut him, nearly said he couldn't take it anymore about how unreliable he was, how all over the place he was.

It turns out in the end, he got all of this behind him. But BC heading into this fight with Dustin Kimura, by the way, at 135 pounds, because his UFC debut, he messes up. He was supposed to fight Scott Jorgensen at UFC 177. And then the weight cutting complications pulls him out of that. So I just wanted to point out for the audience, BC,

from the 2012 failure to make the Olympic Games all the way through the regional scene, even though he was getting wins and everything else, he did not start his UFC campaign under the most auspicious of beginnings. I'm glad you nailed that because my first point off of his UFC debut here in December of 2014 was he's not getting the Bo Nickel treatment. You know, he's not getting the Gable Stevenson treatment that WWE gave him, like signing him a year early out of college and to NIL and, you know, already putting him in their system. But

you nailed that. His brand and the momentum he had coming off of that 2008 gold really stalled and not making the 2012 team. You add in the the i guess you can call unprofessionalism with the with the idea of getting serious enough making committing to being on weight that i remember specifically his first few ufc fights in general luke that there was just no buzz he debuted here like the second to the last fight on the early prelims like there's absolutely no like dominant buzz carrying him in there's more of questions of all this guy can he do that but like i remember anytime he was interviewed and josh gross when he was at espn always did a good job on his podcast of bringing henry in early like

before his ufc debut afterwards i remember listening to those and being like man this guy like wants to be a star like it's in him it's jumping out of him i wonder if that can channel into greatness in this sport but it took ufc a while just the same as you mentioned to really trust and embrace that and a lot of that was the early weight issues there's no question so to your point he doesn't fight scott jorgensen who was a wbc holdover a very uh tested not super elite bantam weight but a good one just the same that doesn doesn't happen. Finally, he does make his debut. This, of course, comes to us on December 13th of 2014 at the UFC on Foxcar between Junior Dos Santos and Stipe Miocic.

By the way, one of the great, great heavyweight fights that ever aired on free TV. A few of them did. This is one of them. And he takes on Dustin Kimura, who was a teammate of Max Holloway. He walks Max Holloway out. BC, when you rewatch this and we go back and look at the historical context, what do you take away from this bantamweight fight? That the timing of the striking from Henry Cejudo and the early poise

is just so dialed up on point, like elite professional level. Look, here's a guy you think he's going to come in and lead completely on his wrestling, but the theme of his early UFC run was just how unwilling he was to lean on that like he would like you know like mix and take downs when he needed to but this was about him trying to prove to everybody that he can learn this other half of this game and learn it very quickly which makes me wonder Luke were you not just you just mentioned all of the comeback fights he needed in certain brackets to end up winning that gold. We talked about how all the momentum he had in potential star power and financial push,

it kind of derailed by not making the 2012 Olympic team. That builds a callous on somebody that if you can channel that into hard work and a winning mentality like Cejudo did, you can be hella dangerous. So I saw a Cejudo in this fight who just even though like the striking wasn't perfect he hadn't really figured out how on the the full delivery to get the most of its power but the head movement defensively the whole poison carrying out i mean you know what it looks like luke when somebody's either a dominant wrestler or grappler and they're trying on the feet to just make their off make their striking helpful in

setting up their takedown game but not as a weapon not at whatever he came in he wanted to lead with that that tells you something about who he was trying to be yeah i i took away from this the word that came to mind when watching it was um prepared certainly, like way more athletic than Dustin Kimura, but raw, very raw. Kimura had really nothing for him. Obviously, he's a tough guy. Again, Max Holloway was in the corner helping to carry the flag at the time, but there was no gear he could go to that was going to give Henry Cejudo problems.

But what I also remember after the fight, I was like, okay, that was a real, what would you say, BC? Something like a workman-like performance, something like that. No, I'm not a whole lot of razzle-dazzle, but what's the first thing he says when he's interviewed when the fight is over? Please, UFC, I can do this. I can go to flyweight. Please let me go to flyweight.

This course was a bantamweight contest, as I indicated. To him, it seemed get good enough to flyweight. This course was a Bantamweight contest, as I indicated. To him, it seemed get good enough to win this. Don't make mistakes. Very transactional. On to the next. And he revealed that he walks around at 144, that he could easily go down. But it's Luke. He actually asked. He said,

give me one more chance to go down to 125 and then I'll come back up. So it's almost like a final plea of like, look, just one time, I'll prove it to you, which was interesting. And also Luke, he said to the crowd, and I remember he grew up in, born in Los Angeles, but grew up in Arizona.

And again, how gritty his come up story just to become an Olympic champion is one of those like the kind of stories that made Oscar De La Hoya like a overnight sensation. So glad you brought that up. He never really, really in fact he got criticized early in his career for leaning on that almost as if he was trying to be this clean cut all-american and his opponents most notably joseph benavidez when they coached tough against

one another was really trying to tear down at that again i i don't like that he leaned in in cringe because it really takes away from who this guy is and what he leaned on but what he said to the microphone to his home crowd was a lot of people thought I was a wrestler, but I don't think I tried for one takedown here. I wanted to give the people of Phoenix what they paid for. You would see a theme after each of these early fights where he says, I could have taken them down, but I want knockouts. I want finishes. I want people to be excited about me. So think of that focus, Luke. It's about surviving advance, keep gaining experience and becoming something. But he had like a three steps ahead plan on how he was going to become that given, you know, the, the foundation he came with, with that

Olympic pedigree behind him. And to your point, I mean, we're old enough to remember Oscar, Oscar De La Hoya in his prime. We lived through it. Uh, he was a star in two worlds there was a time where the Mexican market was you could tell me better than I could tell the audience bc but there was a time where the Mexican audience was perhaps a little bit hesitant about him or at least uncertain but over time he really earned their respect obviously through a series of fights he was able to get some wins but also really embracing that role. I think for a time, Cejudo wanted that role and maybe did embrace it to an extent,

but ultimately went on his own path in a different way. Here though, they're still a little bit intertwined. I think he realized that whether that role was truly him, 100% or him just trying to fulfill what he feel were the expectations of trying to be that

character publicly meaning that clean caught all-american this is what hard work looks like hulk hogan say your prayers eat your vitamins bs like i think he started to realize luke that there wasn't money at the end of that you know there wasn't like life-changing money and i think that's the there was i was like there was i'm sorry to talk over you there was when he was a gold medal winning olympian fresh in that identity but over time it didn't work its way out that way because he had the stalled momentum and he was already thinking and looking into this business how do i one up how do i get ahead how do i stand out and i think that's obviously what led the greatness of rounding out his game. But there was that calculated value early on that you have to respect of what he was trying to do,

even though the doubts were huge. I mean, he had missed weight in his final LFA fight. The fight before that was a catch weight because he was failing to cut down late before. This is a glaring hole in the overall game. Obviously, it's great that we know now he repaired that hole quickly so i just want to point out too that fight took place in phoenix arizona his ostensible hometown listen to this look where they had him fight for the next few fights mexico city after this dallas monterey mexico las vegas las vegas later on they take him to canada when he's fighting wilson hayes we'll talk about that later but they were trying to put him in that American Southwest, that Chicano American sort of Cain

Velasquez territory. They were trying to get a similar kind of beat on that with him. So we move BC two fights here. We could talk about them relatively quickly. UFC 185 in March of 2015. And then of course UFC 188 in June of 2015, as I mentioned, Dallas and then Mexico City respectively. He takes on Chris Carrioso and Chico Camas BC. He wins both of these by decision. So he's got three UFC fights at this point, three unanimous decisions. Here's my takeaway from this up to this point, which is he looks good. He looks fine. He's definitely beaten these guys. He had Chico Camas in a cow catcher for a time. I mean, just way better, but I still didn't get future champion

vibes. Where were you this many fights in? Yeah, he's still figuring it out. Look, the second fight, the Chris Cariasso fight, Cariasso was just coming off of losing to DJ in his title shot opportunity. So think of what that showed you about where they thought Cejudo can come in and potentially be. And they put him in Dallas on the first opening fight of the pay-per-view card. So he goes from early prelims, almost like here's your tryout to, oh, let's see what we got here and try to position it. Now, Luke Cejudo, even though he dominated Cariasso, it wasn't exciting. He gave himself a D. He said the fatigue from the weight cut affected his cardio. And this was his UFC debut at the 125, the weight class that he promised he could make. But I think the real key fight that gets forgotten was that next fight in Mexico City against Chico Camus, even though he would go on to gain the unanimous decision here

and we would almost forget it. Sometimes we forget who Chico Camus ever was in terms of, you know, like one of those guys that excelled in the gym against top competition, had good wins, you know, had a UFC run, but was never able to put it together completely. That's why he came in as a 12 and one underdog against Suhudo here. But I think this was the first fight where Suhudo couldn't win on his physicality, athleticism, and Olympic pedigree alone, because Kamis surprisingly at this point in his career, really put up the physical limitations of not just stuffing takedowns consistently and making it difficult, but actually making Cejudo tired by mixing

in some strong striking and just being a moving target throughout. And Luke, Camus was trained in with Ben Askren in Milwaukee in this one, but Camus has become the chief sparring partner for Rosnami Yunus in that camp throughout her title run. So he's still, it shows you like the mind that he is. But remember, Cejudo walked to that in the full Aztec costume with the headpiece in Mexico City as a nod to both of his parents who were born in Mexico City and ultimately brought him to LA where he was born. But it's like his lean in that area.

But in the end, even though Camus, I thought really gave, this was the first time you had to see Cejudo problem solve, particularly early in round three to, to really on the moment, in the moment, not get overwhelmed. His poise is his greatest skill. And maybe it's all those comfort behind wins on the Olympic trail and wrestling, whatever it was, maybe it's his upbringing. Maybe it's just the full picture his poise under pressure

think round two and three against morice after a slow start this is who he is this is the greatness it was on display here because camus made it hard and we had to see henry finally think a little bit so um again afterwards he would talk about the um the elevation sea level cane right that that slowed him down he also revealed he had food poisoning and should have pulled out of the fight. He had a bad taco, but he said, I had to fight for the Mexican people. And he was always very honest early. He says, I was disappointed in myself. I was sluggish.

He's always able to give you the in the moment, you know, humble review. But final point on him, at least attempting to lean into not just the all American hero with the gold medal, but the Mexican Mexican hero, whose parents were born in Mexico city. He did most of that post-fight interview in straight Spanish and did it like authoritatively and aggressively. So,

I mean, he always had Luke that charisma that probably comes from the Olympic times that like full confidence and understanding of who he is, but this was him leaning hard into, let me try to max out this character, this version of myself as a brand, as a character. No doubt about it. And as I mentioned, they go to Mexico back to back with him. So we fast forward now to November 21st, 2015. Now we're in Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico. He wins a split decision over tested Brazilian Juussier Formiga. You see, this is that one part where I began to realize like, wow, he's really changed. And again, it's not a question of

right or wrong. It's a question of how these athletes view themselves, what pressures, what mantles they want to accept or adopt and who they want to present themselves as. And it's not right or wrong. It's just what they want. At that time, he was really leaning in to that cross-cultural identity, wearing this Aztec-like outfit on his walk to the cage, which you know the UFC probably would not have agreed to for most other fighters in most other circumstances. But they want to make a splash in Mexico. They've got this guy with a story that we all know at this point. And he comes in there and he has a good performance against a

very tough guy, but the audience was quiet the whole time. Like here's what I'm trying to point out. I'm not here to accentuate things that didn't go right. What I'm saying is he hasn't had a real galvanizing breakout moment at this run in his career, despite fairly significant promotional pushes in different directions. It's why on any journey, any path to get somewhere, sometimes things we look at in the moment as setbacks or hurdles we had to unnecessarily clear, but those become, you know, in the end, the things that made us. It's easy to look at the last two fights we mentioned, and now this Formiga fight. And maybe we did this as journalists and fans in the moment and be like, okay, he's good, but he's not

great. Yet Luke, I think these are the most, some of the most important fights that made him who he was because Camus was a physical veteran presence who could outthink him and really make him have to show us a new side of himself. Formiga was almost a fresher version of exactly that. You weren't going to take him down easy. He was tough as nails on the striking, even though he wasn't a great striker. And obviously he was a threat on the ground and could really match Cejudo at times. I really think if we had Cejudo here and we were going point by point, he would circle a fight like this. After having the weight issues, the illness, a fight like this after having the weight

issues, the, the illness, the fight before the elevation issues. Now he comes back in Mexico and he was in a very, again, firm spot, third fight from the top, but to come in here and give another solid performance, he had to learn a lot in these key moments to become that problem solver and that thinker and not always lean. If he just leaned on on the physical luke he would have been a brawling boxer in the ufc even with the wrestling game you know what i mean if he just would have came in and just leaned on that and said you know but like this guy's a next level thinker and you can find it in small moments here because he never looked great against formiga but he handled his business like professionally and in in it does remind you luke looking back at a

fight like this the reebok era i know i was alone when I first started saying it but I keep saying it that just looks classier more business-like in that you know I mean like the it does oh the kids it just gives the sport a high level elite feel Luke that that's missing today I'll tell you that much uh what might be missing but I don't know if they're the antidote uh nevertheless I like the way you put that which was you see him against through these four fights you see him begin to problem solve you see him begin to use some of the athleticism when necessary but like in a you know a thoughtful way not just a spamming you with it kind of way um and he even through some of the difficulty he's clearly just beating these guys on a lot of natural ability natural

wrestling talent he's obviously been a good striker he won the bronze gloves which is a you know a very amateur title in in a regional level boxing basically and so he you know he's always been comfortable as a striker we saw that in the Dustin Kimura fight and then so forth but to my point he's got four decisions now the last of them was a split. Although the scoring was weird. He had two 30, 27, then one 29, 28, neither here nor there. It was kind of close. The point I'm trying to make is what I said before, he's beating these guys. He's, he's better than them, but you're not exactly seeing a lot of razzle dazzle that you might get a little bit later in his game, because now we're about to move into the big boys of the division and this is to me the reformation the beginning of the reformation of Henry Cejudo we move to UFC 197

this is in April of 2016 in Las Vegas Nevada he fights the champion Demetrius Johnson and BC I hate to say it but it is true we all the story. He gets worked like a summer job. Demetrius Johnson finishes him inside the first round. And while there was a moment here or there where Cejudo got a takedown or looked pretty good, in the end, he was clearly overmatched, didn't have an answer for the clinch or the variety of the game of Demetrius Johnson. And this was a major wake-up call that, yeah, there's those or the the variety of the game of Demetrius Johnson and this was a major wake-up call that yeah there's those guys in the back of the pack and then there's this guy

at the front of the pack and there is a huge gap between them yeah and so who do I talked a lot of junk in the in the previous fights post fight about DJ leans on his wrestling too much if you look at the root of all of DJ's greatness, it all leads back to his wrestling. And he's like, I'm better than him there. And I think this was, you know, it was too much too soon,

but I think it was also a Cejudo who was a little bit too cocky and needed, you know, this rare sort of being dragged out in public in front of us, because whatever great game plan Cejudo might've had coming in, we just never got to see it. And that's because of DJ's greatness. And really the turning point was that bright moment that Suhudo had when he got that early

trip takedown and showed that physicality and like went right into double leg on him. DJ did like a two footed like kip up where he just kicks Suhudo off him. You were like, oh, damn. OK. It was like, all right. Well, you know, that was sort of a wake up call. DJ a minus 600 favorite in this one. Suhudo plus 400.

But I specifically remember just disappointment when the finish happened of just being like, oh, man, I mean, he never even got going. He never even got to show us whether he could compete at this level. But the reason why he lost was the combination of DJ's greatness and DJ finding that one area where maybe he's not up to speed and exploiting it. And just so you know about DJ, this was his eighth title defense and Rogan already calling him on the walk to the cage, the greatest fighter pound for pound of all time. So that's exactly where we're at. And dude, as much as this is about what Cejudo didn't do and

learn from, dude, how about DJ's angles on those knees from the tie clinch? I mean, dude, that was so nasty. The vicious. And it was mixing up, too. I mean, it was kind of like, see, this is where Cejudo learned. Cejudo did that sequence where DJ bodied him up there. I've seen that again in future Cejudo fights. It's almost like, you know, you see him learning in the moment. But, dude, let's give the mouse some credit.

Like, this version of him right here, this performance would have probably beaten anybody of all, you know, you see him learning in the moment. But, dude, let's give the mouse some credit. Like, this version of him right here, this performance, would have probably beaten anybody in history. I mean, that's insane. Yeah, I mean, understand where he was at, right, to your point with the win streak. But he had beaten Ian McCall. He had beaten Joseph Benavidez twice. He had beaten John Dodson twice. He had beaten Ali Bagoutinov.

He had beaten Chris Cariasso. He'd beaten Kyoji Horiguchi. Remember that one is where he gets the arm bar at the very last second. It was a 459 around number five. I mean, this was peak, peak Demetrius Johnson. BC, what I remember from this is just that I think this was the moment that Henry Cejudo realized, okay, I can beat all these other guys basically just as I am.

An athlete who trains, gets ready, cuts weight, I can just do that. I can beat almost all these guys that way, but I'm really not going to be able to do anything else unless I do more. And Demetrius Johnson was from a technical, from an athletic perspective, would you really say Demetrius Johnson is miles ahead of Henry Cejudo? I certainly would not say that. No, but he mixes it. Well, he mixes it with being a little bit smarter and planning a couple steps ahead.

I don't think Cejudo had ever met his match on somebody who could out-think and out-game plan him there before. Yeah, and also you're just dealing with, in terms of MMA, a generational talent in Demetrius Johnson in his own right, right? One of the very best fighters, independent of weight class ever,

the level of technical sophistication and experience, obviously in MMA as well. Remember, so who doesn't have like, what does he have at this point? 10 fights. I mean, when he fought DJ, that was his 11th fight, right? I mean, we're talking about a next level in terms of just what Demetrius Johnson had in terms of MMA.

And I think it really, really, really showed up in this contest. And I also think it mentally set him back, BC, because it wasn't just that he lost to a really good guy, even though that is part of the story. I think it kind of shattered some illusions he was holding about himself. Oh, yeah. Because he got finished, right? Let's understand that.

He got put away inside the first round against this guy he takes into his next fight which we're talking about just a second i think not a losing attitude per se bc but he still couldn't quite get right following that very bad loss let me tell you what it was the loss set up well that look a loss at the highest level this was this was Cejudo who had won the Olympic gold, who had told us all great he was, finally got his title shot and said all the things would happen and then they didn't. That's going to start an identity crisis. Obviously, the great ones at this level in this sport are able to spin that into regrouping and coming back

and doing exactly what Cejudo did, but it's not an overnight process. This leads perfectly into the Joseph Benavidez fight. Why? Because Cejudo is in mid-identity crisis right now. He knows that there was something majorly lacking in his game to get to the level of where DJ was, but again, they were calling DJ the greatest fighter of all time, I mean, at that moment. He also had to figure out like the formula. Should I be leaning more on my chin aggressiveness and warrior spirit? He was in an identity crisis and we benefited from it because he caught a peaking. Joseph Benavidez at exactly the right time. But the reason why this fight was so important and spoiler alerts,

who doesn't even win this fight was because this was his first after changing his team dramatically. He only had eight weeks to prep ahead of the Benavidez fight with the new camp, which had trainer, the captain, Eric Albarracin, who had been Cejudo's wrestling partner going back to the Olympic days. So there's real family trust in there. But they had that other guy, Luke, the white guy, was his name, Santiago. It was a completely new team. And that started the rewiring of the mind I think it just was too soon here against Benavidez against a great fighter like let's give let's give um you know uh Megan's husband some love here it took the prop but you got to watch the process play out in a fun way in front of you because

he can he didn't he didn't know what he needed to do yet Luke but he was willing to try it and it just was a good action fight at the right time yes the loss to Demetrius Johnson set in motion a certain mental awareness about where he was and where he needed to be and what was missing he's still to your point working out the kinks against Joseph Benavidez coming off of a season where there are coaches on the Ultimate Fighter. So of course, we jump now to December 3rd, 2016, the Ultimate Fighter Tournament of Champions finale, where these two guys were coaches, Joseph Benavidez and Henry Cejudo. Now, Henry loses this contest. Now, BC, there's two things to this contest that are important. I think your characterization of like, he's kind of in this middle ground where he can still do a lot of stuff. Well, anybody wants to be more than that, but he doesn't quite know how to get there, but he's willing to try. He gets himself into a little bit of trouble. Number one,

he gets a point deducted in the first round for low blows. I thought the referee was a little heavy handed, but I'm not really all that mad at it. And number two, even with that i think you could argue that suhudo won but i'm gonna say that the back-to-back losses are what really fueled him to the next level no question about it and getting a deeper entrenchment with the new team and figuring out what what they can bring in to add and work with what's already there. Look, that stuff takes time. And not to belabor the point about the identity crisis, but this was the tough season here where Cejudo, even though he'd lost to DJ, was put back in another spot by the UFC to be front facing because this card was the ultimate fighter tournament of champions finale

that they were headlining. But Benavidez chipped away, Luke, throughout that tough season. And they showed, you know, when you go back and you watch this fight, you can see some of those clips like where he was attacking that basically calling Cejudo, like a fake all American, like calculated every turn,

all the, the, the things he says is pre-written in advance. Like he's a politician. And I wonder if the timing of all of that really messed with Henry trying to figure out who he is as a fighter. What's his identity where it led in. He was willing to throw like,

in fact, Anik in the first round was like, I, this is a different urgency than we've ever seen from Cejudo. And that's a great way to sum it up. He wanted to fight. He brought the fight. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's.

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The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. Buddy, I think it was leaning too much on that other side, that machismo side, then figuring out that right formula still in the process in the lab here of how to be the thinker just the same but with that said this may be the best joseph benavidez there ever was like this night this portion of his career he was riding a five fight win streak coming in since getting knocked out by dj in the rematch he would go on unfortunately you know to not climb that mountain but but at least put himself back in and he had the two title fights

there with figueredo and it didn't go his way and he walked away as one of the best fighters in the sport who never won a ufc title to be fair he's in that list joseph benavidez is of that ilk but uh he was really calculated in the cage too in how he never allowed suhudo any form of space to breathe to set up like benavidez was darting in and out like a like an absolute prime champion two of the things i would point out just statistically he stuffed six of seven shots from henry cejudo henry cejudo only got one takedown in the first round which only ever afforded him a whopping ready for this six seconds of control time virtually nothing he whiffed on all takedown attempts uh there was actually none in the second round then he whiffed on all takedown attempts uh there was actually none in the second

round and then he whiffed on four in the third so he really shut him down there and also like the striking was really really close listen to these totals we see round over round now these are numeric not qualitative totals but it tells you kind of what things that happened for benavidez and so who do it goes as follows in round one 22 to 21 right next to each other round two 22 to 21 round three 25 to 26 I mean they were right there the one thing that I would say that I saw from Henry in this fight especially I think towards the third round BC body work body work from Henry Cejudo to the point you raised about problem solving now we put it together a little bit too late, but you're beginning to see pieces of the game come to him. And some of that body work he invested in, in that third round,

I thought to me, I was like, Hmm, that's an interesting, an interesting angle. But the reality was BC that wasn't enough to create separation from himself and Joseph Benavidez in the eyes of the judges, especially after the losing that point. Obviously from what we know now, we can say these two losses he needed it they allowed him the you know self-referential ability to look at what he's doing how he can change it and obviously now entering a second camp with with albers seen in the new team and all together but like i mean this could have gone another way but yeah imagine if he had won the benavides fight by split decision i think it got hailed as the fight of the year in 2016.

People can dead wrong me here, but I think it was. It wasn't as great on second watch, by the way, as I remember in real time, but it was a fun action fight at a high level. If he had won that, Luke, you wonder if he leans more on that, on just coming in as a slugger in the future, or if the second straight loss in a high profile moment, right? This is the ultimate fighter finale after he coached that had to humble him and make him go, okay,

I've got to really figure out and finish the science here and, and really figure out how to get the most out of myself at an, in another level. And dude, that began with the next fight against Wilson Hayes, where he was just on a different wavelength. Obviously, the opponent changes affect that to a large degree. But, Luke, he was like an executioner in this fight.

Yeah, fun fact. I went to a Wilson Hayes. He used to train in this area around 2007 or so. And I went to one of his seminars and the guy who gave him a black belt, Huberto Godoy. Shouts to Ryan Hall and Seth Smith adventure over at Nova MMA. So, um,

uh, just a little bit of a making it all about me, BC, which I love to do. All right. Neither here nor there for a little bit about you. A little bit. Yeah.

September 9th. Not an aerial level of splashing the pool, Luke. Okay. You know what I mean? Not that, that that's, that's tough to match.

All right, but here we go. September 9th, 2017 BC. It's a performance of the night. It's tough to match. All right, here we go. September 9th, 2017, BC. It's a performance of the night. It's against Wilson Hayes. Two things I want to say stand out to me about this fight, BC.

Number one, it's in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Now, it's not fair to say that after the two back-to-back losses, two Demetrius in a title fight, and then Joseph Benavidez coming off the ultimate fighter, that the UFC had lost confidence in Henry Cejudo. But to to me it looks like they were hedging at least a little bit now they put him on the main card in a pay-per-view but now they're not worried about hey can we put this guy in mexico can we put this guy in la can we put this guy in parts of you know texas that's got that crossover audience you're going to ship your ass to canada because we're just going to put you where we need you at this point you're beginning to see the main event was was new to Shevchenko too so a great fight like for legacy

on paper but not a fan like jumping out the door to see it not a huge card in that way right he's in Siberia basically Luke yeah but it was on the main card so again they're not they're not totally lost confidence but I want to point out they they clearly had begun to dial it back a little bit that's the first thing but the biggest thing i took away from this fight bc and how could you miss it the new stance the new swag the new verve he comes out he looked like a man born again born anew he had not just a new style bc but he had the confidence in it, and it showed the entire time. I mean, just the crispness, the confidence.

I mean, this was, we'd seen flashes of what Henry could look like doing this for a whole fight at this level before, but not at this level. And it's like, okay, well, Wilson Hayes isn't Benavidez or Johnson, but Hayes was coming directly off his title loss to Demetrius Johnson. So Henry, along the way, really had to face, you know, janevitas or johnson but hayes was coming directly off his title loss to demetrius johnson so henry along the way really had to face you know tough guys at tough times to find out how good he can be this was no different from that look i was i thought it was weird though that suhudo came into this fight ranked two in the division despite being fresh off two straight defeats they always

the guys who do the rankings yeah well the guys do the rankings suck at their jobs and in general and what you often find is that dude if you if let's say i'm ranked i don't know seven or something or no maybe not in that five and you're ranked uh you're the champion and i give you a tough fight but i lose they'll make me number one contender like oh well if you think about it he really does when in fact i don't deserve that ranking at all in that circumstance granted now i also want to say at the time there was a little bit of dispute about the judging in the benavidez and suhudo fight because of the point deduction you couldn't really cry that much but it was perceived to be very close the point deduction wouldn't have changed it back to a Cejudo win or a draw.

No, I don't think so. But what I'm saying is all of it kind of, not conspired, but all of it kind of worked together to create more controversy in the end. Right, right. Well, look, this was the fight I was referencing, that we remember when DJ finished Cejudo and humbled him and how he worked the tie clinch at, you know, not necessarily Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin levels, but dominant.

Well, this was the fight against Wilson Hayes in the second round. That's the, who don't did exactly that. Luke, that was almost, it was almost virtuoso. Like that stretch where he had Hayes in the clinch and he would mix up kicks, calf kicks, knees, kicks to the body. Like he really, the variety of offense and how easily he would just grab hold of Hayes and just trap him. Like he was a man possessed, but he was a wrecking ball. And the timing was great because Demetrius Johnson was front row with his wife and had a huge smile on

his face and was like, I'm ready, bro. Let's bring this on. An interesting tidbit. Cejudo revealed after the fight that he had trained with Lyoto Machida behind the scenes and that was part of him changing his stance to a more machida like one machida was also in mike perry's corner ahead of his bkfc breakthrough win over luke rockhold you do the math there luke okay yes very good but the one thing about wilson hayes heading into this was he had some decent wins he had some losses he was obviously a much bigger name at the time well even before that really during the aughts he was a big name in the grappling circuit and on the ground he is you know just not to be trifled with he is very very good but you know he was never a great striker and even in this fight was not a great striker so I think I remember

folks being like okay it's a nice win by Henry he definitely looked good in the win but he outstruck a guy and out wrestled a guy essentially because he had two tak definitely looked good in the win, but he outstruck a guy and out-wrestled a guy, essentially, because he had two takedowns in the fight as well, that he should have done that too. In that particular dimension, or those two dimensions, he should be much better, and in fact, he was. So now we move along, BC. We go a little bit further.

They keep him on the pay-per-views. UFC 218, but he's in Detroit, Michigan. UFC 218 took place December 2nd and was headlined by Holloway versus Aldo 2 this fight in particular took place in the same one the last one did which was the third fight on the main card so he's still doing that kind of northeast tour a little bit on these decent sized pay-per-views he fights Sergio Pettis BC to me an unremarkable fight but remarkable in one sense if I may yeah off of the two losses to Demetrius and Benavidez he has three more fights we'll talk about the next one the rematch against DJ where it all begins to turn for him but the Hayes Pettis and Demetrius Johnson

fights these are the last three fights he uses wrestling and his three fights after that he does not now he uses it thoroughly in this contest he gets takedowns on all three basically Pettis spends about three minutes in each round underneath there's not much more to the story or am I missing something here I look back on this and a fight we easily could have skipped that you easily could have forgotten yet like talking up those decision wins over Camus or or uh Juicy Formiga, that can be forgettable in the same way. We can look at how much Cejudo problem-solved and grew. This is problem-solving at a different level.

He just came off an offensively dominant performance in which he stopped Wilson Hayes, who was fresh off of fighting for the title. You would have thought he would lean more in that direction. Yet he looked at this. Pettis, who was just 24, was firmly established. Four-fight winning streak coming in. And the last three were over Moreno, Moraga, and Carriazo. So, like, he's showing you that he can beat the elites and that he's legit. And five-inch reach advantage and two-inch height advantage, though, for Pettis. So you wonder if Cejudo's coming in and going,

if I try to be that technically brilliant, that same way I was against, you know, Hey, as I'm not going to be able to bully him because Pettis moves so much, but with that reach, maybe this is potentially a losing battle. So he leans on the strength,

the foundation of who he is as a fighter. And even with the crowd booing, look, this fight was about securing a title shot. I actually liked that. He went out there and showed us once again, I know the last fight I leaned on my striking and I was nasty and dominant with the new stance in my second fight with my new team.

But if I need to, at any point, regardless of your entertainment level of happiness, I could break this out and completely control a fight. Dude, like, I respect looking back at how key this was knowing the rematch with dj came directly after dude he like needed this as elite level practice in a way to really formulate round out and make all aspects of his game speak to each other and flow off of each other that's another part of what he does he doesn't just have all the ingredients everything blends luke he's a very detailed technician in that regard also the other thing though that i take away i have a slightly different view on it which is you know beating wilson hayes

in the striking again you're beating a guy with striking who's not good at it beating sergio pettis with predominantly not exclusively obviously but predominantly wrestling it's like you didn't fight the jujitsu guy on his terms against Hayes or against Pettis. You didn't fight the striker on his terms to beat him. And of course you don't have to. In fact, part of the game is getting around that. But to me, running into Demetrius Johnson, not once but twice made this guy so much better than he was. I think ordinarily would have been because it made him confront the weak areas in a way that no other opponent really ever could. I mean, the reality is BC, would you go to Pettis and Hayes

and Formiga and Camus? Honestly, you could hide in those fights, so to speak. If you're Henry Cejudo, you can hide behind the fact that you don't have certain parts of your game developed and you can just work on the other ones. And those are good enough to win. It is against Demetrius where there is no place to hide, and once you really get nakedly drawn out that way, that's when the worm begins to turn. And, Luke, don't forget quickly, because I forget all the time, UFC 218, this card in Detroit, this has got to be one of the greatest pay-per-view cards

in the history of the sport that we never talk about. This was the first seven fights. Tell me if I'm overplaying it, okay? Holloway Aldo 2 and Ganu Overeem,im so hudo pettis which was this fight alvarez gaethje tisha versus watterson and the two featured prelims were felder versus charles olivera and yancey maderos in that fight of the year contending brawl against cowboy olivera you got that's a pretty good one that's a great one that felder win i forget that if your folks and Yancy Medeiros in that fight of the year contending brawl against Cowboy Oliveira. You got respect for him? Yeah, that's a pretty good one. That's a great one.

That Felder win, I forget, if you're a folks who've been, I remember that's the one where he like nailed Oliveira into the canvas with elbows through his guard, utterly reckless, and he still did it anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So let's move it, though, to the point where i think this is where you get maybe maybe after the two losses between hayes and pettis you got you know 1.5 but this is really

version 2.0 against demetrius johnson we moved to ufc 227 now we're in 2018 and by the way i was trying to like pinpoint when some of the cringe stuff started it's around this time or maybe a little bit after it where it really begins to heat up obviously before the dillashaw fight you're getting some of him leaning into this newer identity by this point of course took place at the staple center in los angeles california with a decent attendance your main event on that card was dillashaw versus garbrandt where dillashaw wins in the in the uh in that particular contest this was the co-main event BC here were the scores because we should start there 48 47 one way 48 47 another way and then finally Henry Cejudo against the 48 47 two of them a super

close contest what is the story of this fight what What did you learn about Henry Cejudo? That he not only needed to lose to DJ the first time, but the full totality of the back-to-back losses during the time that he's working with a new team and Henry Cejudo figuring it out because that identity crisis was so necessary because of the fighter he was in this fight, the switching stances with ease, the variety to his offensive attack that was at DJ's level. And then obviously when we know that he can take the fight to the ground and look, there was some just beautiful grappling exchanges between these two of reversing position. Like I forgot how much when this fight ended, Rogan was going nuts. I mean, not only the, the, the, the catchy line of Henry Cejudo,

you just shocked the world, but like going nuts of like, man, this was a great, great fight. Um, this was also something that I missed in real time, Luke, because I do think that, you know, there's a great case that DJ should have won this fight. I felt he wanted three rounds to two first time watching it. You look back, the DJ also had two major injuries that he would reveal after the fight coming into this one. And by the he fought great and you know argued that he could have won and then he never fought again didn't get a rematch got traded away yet gave literally the most humble post-fight interview that any fighter could ever give i mean he came in here having broken the ufc record with 11 title defenses, you know, being called pound for pound, the greatest ever, like with a bullet, like was that dude loses in a great fight, has an argument that

it was, you know, that he got screwed over, was injured on top of it. And then it's like, yeah, I'll be fine, man. My wife's going to have a third child. Can't wait to go home and see my beautiful wife. Oh, shucks. See you guys later. But like, that's who DJ was. So I want to tip the cap to him in that regard.

But rewatching it, you see the brilliance and the level that Cejudo is actually at and how he was able to raise his game. At the end of round two, when Rogan's yelling, we have a fight, when Cejudo finally secures like a clean takedown and really just starts to try to physically impose himself. Like, dude, looking back, this was a great fight. And he really had to notch up his game to give DJ trouble, whether those injuries compromised him or not. But what you love, though, is that DJ will never lean on that

and barely ever tell you about it. And now they're seemingly fast friends. I think they both have reverence for what the other guy has accomplished, both against one another and then independent of that. I mean, the real story of this fight is definitely how Henry Cejudo made it much more competitive than I think some of the fans of Mighty Mouse would either like you to believe or would remember.

On the other hand, the scoring is controversial, and here's why. Again, these are numeric totals, not qualitative, but Demetrius Johnson landing 81 significant strikes, Henry Cejudo just 51 30 more than him that's a lot when there's not that much overall volume to begin with but the difference BC was the three takedowns by Henry Cejudo he got one in the second round he got one in the fourth and he got one in the fifth and when he got him he got control time a minute 29 two minutes and 14 seconds and then about a minute in round number five the

scoring in those rounds actually ends in terms of the the striking ends up being really close so that's where he begins to edge it and folks were like well did he do a lot of ground and pound did he not here's what i'll say again if you wanted to make a case for demetrius winning that fight that's okay but what i did think that henry achieved here and not just breaking through and getting a win over a major name but what he did was he brought Demetrius back to earth, right? He Demetrius was so much better than these other guys where he was just, you know, sometimes the fights would go long or Tim Elliott was bigger than you imagine, but you never really believe they were that close. You, Henry Cejudo made you believe they were actually pretty close together that, that, that this was

going to be a grinded out to the fifth round that maybe if he got lucky i don't know things there was just a certain level of parity between them at least seemingly it felt that way in real time that the scoring might not necessarily speak to and it wasn't just that he put together more dynamic footwork patterns switching stances on the fly and striking which you know allows him to get closer and suddenly he's right up on you he was was willing to eat DJ's big shots. And these are the kinds of shots that DJ sometimes finishes people. But there was a particular sequence in that first round where Cejudo partially ate a pretty big head kick yet walked right through it, switch stances, rotated in. And that was the first time he popped the crowd there when he landed a clean left hand

to DJ. And as DJ was like turtle shelling, he was putting it on him in the clinch. So it was the establishment of that physicality for sure. But like, man, I wish I didn't focus so much. And that's why it was hard when Cejudo would go from here to not too long after get the chance to become a two division champion and being praised with saving this division. It was hard when I didn't feel like in real time he won this fight but in hindsight his adjustments his ability to just always be on dj and not letting not letting dj flow and do the the crazy stuff that he had just did against ray board right getting that ridiculous submission out of thin air um this was wild and we have to also mention when we talk about suhudo's mental toughness dude he rolled his ankle basically dj kak kiffed him so hard in the first round that suhudo went to step and his toes coiled under him

and he pushed down and probably strained his ankle and yet recovered in a pretty miraculous way afterwards so suhudo said in the post-fight interview that he won the fight with composure this is on full display against you know arguably the best fighter of all time exactly why suhudo deserves his flowers and why this night even though eric alberacin was going sick in the celebration and it was this feel-good moment you were right we were actually starting the cringe era right here when it should have been hey la i've got an incredible backstory in this city you know what i mean my single mom like just all the things, and we got through it, and I won Olympic gold, and now I won a championship right here.

Yet now all we do after this, Luke, is talk about how cringe his social media videos are. You know what I mean? I mean, it doesn't matter, right? Who cares? But I want to, like, this guy's a folk hero, Luke. This is ridiculous. So Henry Cejudo's MMA career is ridiculous.

It really is. It really is. It's super unlikely, and I also feel like the confidence he gained from this just buoyed him in next-level ways, like just the feeling of beating Demetrius. Remember, through the Demetrius Johnson fight, he's got one stoppage. The rest of them are all

decisions split or unanimous. That's it. He's got the one thing, so it's not like he's really put it on these guys, but beating a name this good good even though it was so hotly contested I think really elevated him and then after that BC he gets nothing but finishes without using his wrestling it really did something to him internally I think again people can dispute the scoring but he accepted it I think the strength of that performance, and again, controlling DJ as many times as he did for as long as he did. You could maybe say you saw that in the Miguel Torres fight, but that was a different weight class, different era. This was this version of DJ.

No one had done that to him. And I think it really bolstered Henry Cejudo's confidence. So BC, that takes us into now. He would say in the post- interview he would say where's dana white i feel disrespected i want the winner of the main event which was dillashaw versus garbrandt for the bantamweight title so he's coming full out and saying like not he's demanding that's where you got to give him credit luke he did at every turn step up and be like this is what i want this is what i need to be great give me what I want they gave him what he wanted Luke they did

and then some so here we have a really special moment we jumped to 2019 excuse me January 19th of 2019 in Brooklyn New York I was at I was at several of these events but I was definitely at this one um here's the story for this one This was the very first for folks who may not remember. This was the very first fight on ESPN plus with the new UFC deal. This was the headlining bout. And remember this was Henry Cejudo. Now you're UFC flyweight champion defending against Dillashaw, but BC, there was a really big and important context to this, which has nothing to do with ESPN, but more about the flyweight division. The flyweight division had been gutted. You had mentioned following this

loss, eventually DJ finds his way over in one championship. They send over Ben Askren. They let Shorty Torres go. They let a bunch of flyweights go. And it wasn't really clear if this division was going to live. And part of the way in which this fight was promoted on this card was not just the bantamweight champion is going to try to drop 10 pounds the way in which this fight was promoted on this card was not just the bantamweight champion is going to try to drop 10 pounds, take it from the flyweight champ, but that this is a fight to save the flyweight division. In the end, he succeeded, but it was fairly interesting and unique consequences in this fight. I'm going to be honest. I hate this fight. I hate as a fan. I hate this fight because ultimately what it robbed me of what

could have been a great fight between two great fighters if this had been for the bantamweight title like suhudo asked and i know originally it was thought that maybe this could be a two-fight series and when suhudo finishes dillashaw here in the first round that's his talk of oh don't worry tj i'll fight you again at bantamweight. Now, they probably would have, if not for TJ, getting hit hard by USADA, and then we brought in the Maraich fight. But, Luke, I hate this because him against TJ at this point at Bantamweight would have been a great fight, you know, stylistically, in terms of their elite skill level thinking.

It would have been and could have been tremendous. Instead, they gave TJ the chance at greatness, which even TJ, I felt at that moment, it's like, you know, I mean, it used to be Luke where if you get a chance to fight for a title in a second weight class, it may be different than a Kenny Florian situation because he lost both, but they did kind of rush him against Aldo. But if you're trying to do it to become a two division champion, it almost used to be like there was this unofficial gate there that like you had to get a certain star level or earn a certain amount, you know, to get where they give you that. I thought it was interesting here that they gave it to TJ and that they made it so much about the flyweights when even though TJ had teased for years that he could make the cut.

Dude, we all and I was, you know, I was always a big TJ fan fighting for his pound for pound ranking when other people were talking about different things against him some justified some not but uh you know he was compromised dude i mean he was badly compromised on top of that luke i still hate the stoppage even though i know you can slow down the video and you can show me how many times tj was getting hit flush there i still don't understand after watching the replays a million times how he actually fell and was dropped because it didn't look like there was a clean strike that really did that i do give credit it was no i still don't understand it was like a grazing partial shot behind the ear he gets hit behind the ear yeah maybe that's maybe it's one of those equilibrium shots that just just uh i mean here's the thing he gets hit behind the ear which is a delicate

spot to get hit with at times and he's drained himself to the most absurd degrees. There's a photo that I think Brett Okamoto maybe of ESPN had posted where, again, this is before TJ. Obviously, for folks who may not remember, you had referenced it. But following this fight is when USADA discovers that TJ is testing positive for EPO and he is suspended and everything else. But there's this picture that goes out. Hopefully our, our, our editors can find it where TJ is sitting at a table and there's like,

I'm not kidding, like a hundred different pill bottles there. And he's taking all of these different, apparently over the counter pills to help him get his weight down. He does make the weight, but he just had no punch resistance at all. Even though the stoppage prevented him from most likely getting clean, cold, concussed, I'm not doubting that.

In a championship fight with his history of durability, even with the weight cut, I felt like it was an early stoppage. Yeah, I mean, what ends up happening is he recovers from the initial shot, gets back up, and then gets dropped a second time, and then basically after the second time and then a subsequent punch without being uncontested, then referee Kevin McDonald,

who looks like the lead singer of a rockabilly band, jumps in and tries to save him there, and then you can see actually Dillashaw immediately protest that this had been stopped. Neither here nor there. This in though it does tie in with if at the point I'm like well Cejudo didn't beat DJ I thought that he got the wrong decision and now he beats a compromised Dillashaw because now it's a different playing field for where Cejudo believes he's at and where the MMA public is ready to accept that

he's at and excreming after the stoppage accept that he's at. And screaming after the stoppage, Henry Cejudo might've just punched his ticket to the hall of fame. And yet he's just getting started. And Cejudo would say the victory was bigger than me. This win was for the flyweights. He would also Luke, as you teased earlier, say, where's Dana? I challenge you and Hunter to have a meeting with me because Henry Cejudo needs to

get paid. So he really was allowed to elevate himself to like almost a McGregor, not McGregor level, but like out of nowhere, Henry Cejudo was like the star of stars who was looking to make the biggest fights possible, almost in a Conor-like way. And I think what comes with that, and at the moment I was sort of like, man, you know, I love him. He's great, but I don't think he's really that. I think circumstances may have played a part in it. You know, in hindsight, I regret leaning on that, Luke, but when you are an opportunist and you're willing to hatch up great ideas and the company's willing to give you that chance and you slide in there and then you perform like he did here, what am I going to say at the end of the day dude he went out there and earned it you know fair enough but i i think from this contest what i took was yeah tj was compromised there's no doubt about that and the stoppage wasn't great but for what we saw henry cejudo looked awesome his punching looked heavy his accuracy looked good his finishing instinct was on point I mean he did everything within reason you could expect for him to do and I want to point out this is beforehand when remember he's doing props at the press conference where he's taking out a snake

and then smashing it on the ground right because obviously the at the time Dillashaw was still running with the whole snake metaphor from snake in the Grass, which Conor had called him. He's truly going into the Smashing Watermelons Gallagher portion of his career. But BC, because he now has back-to-back wins over Demetrius Johnson and TJ Dillashaw, TJ Dillashaw is super high at that point in his career. Well, he's playing with house money at this point. So that fight was in January. In February of 2020, just the following month, excuse me, no, what am I saying? February of 2020.

So about a year later, basically, Henry Cejudo lets go of the flyweight title. He releases it, relinquishes it, then decides, I'm going to go to bantamweight. Why? Because there is no bantamweight champion. Henry Cejudo is going to fight Marlon Maraich on June 8th of 2019 in Chicago, Illinois, at UFC 238 for the title that TJ Dillashaw was supposed to have but had to let go. I want to remind folks, after the fight is over, Henry Cejudo says to TJ in the cage,

hey, we can run this back at 135. Almost, BC, this fight was supposed to be that. Instead, it was Marlon Marash who was the number one contender at the time. We got robbed that UFC allowed that fight to happen at 125. I mean, maybe that saves it. Maybe that saves the division, and I should shut up because I do love the post-Cejudo and DJ era at flyweight. It's been very fun, But that's the situation.

And if you're trying to remember because you've had too many Marlon Marais one-sided stoppage defeats in your screen lately, how good Marais was entering this vacant title bout. He was a minus 160 betting favorite to the plus 130 Sahudo. And he had riding a four-fight win streak in which he stopped Aljo, Jimmy Rivera and Javier Asuncao. Asuncao was the only loss in an 18 fight stretch. And by the way, the loss was a controversial split decision that was disputed in which

Marais was 17 and one over an 18 fight stretch, winning the world series of fighting championship coming to UFC. Although he lost that first fight, he's stopping these dudes left and right and in marlon marais look look like the freaking terminator in round one of this fight like this was look there are there are moments randy couture beating tim sylvia is one of them i think juliana pena beating newness is another one where it's like paul bunyan captain america the battle of the human spirit just this moment happens luke this fight in henry cejudo's arc is that that larger than life moment and how he problem solved and how he figured it out but

dude speak to that first round maresh is a is a tank here. I mean, the leg kicks was really the story of the first round. I think this fight is on YouTube on one of the free fights UFC gives out. If not, you can go to Fight Pass. And obviously, the fight is there. Maybe you have it through an ESPN subscription. Really encourage folks to go back and watch that first round. Marlon Maraich assassinates the legs of Henry Cejudo. To the point where I was like, I don't even know how this dude's going to make it to the third round if it even goes that far. He was getting destroyed, and not just landing leg kicks, like what ends up happening, BC, and tell me if I'm exaggerating in any way.

He got hit with a lot of inside leg kicks, right? So what ends up happening is Marais would hit the inside of the leg, and it hit so hard it would take the lead leg of Cejudo and then fling it backwards. And he'd almost have to like jelly roll it back into place to get back to his stance. It was like literally knocking him out of his stance in like heavy, demonstrative ways. He was changing stances to accommodate it.

Like, let's be very clear about this. Morlan Marais was in total control after a round. Yes. In fact, when Cejudo finally hit him with a big right hand to open round two, even though a lot of people still gave round two to Marais, and we can talk about that in a second, that was where Cejudo finally gained like a modicum of respect. That was the first time up to that point, what, six minutes into the fight,

where he wasn't getting just, you know, because the thing is it wasn't just Marais loading up and landing his setup and delivery i mean he was moving quick he was just quick trigger response man it was physical and powerful but to go back and watch how so hudo the computer you talk about his poise luke it has to be talked about as his leading skill, even above the wrestling. I mean, he so calmly is absorbing these shots and circling away and still just trying to figure out the problem of, okay, I'm going to have to walk into oncoming traffic and make this a fight. He won this fight because he ultimately made this a fight and wore down and gassed out and out dogged Maraish.

But the setup before that is so intriguing because he's still getting lit up to the legs yet the whole time, man, just that calm. Okay, let me see this. Let me try this. Oh, not that. I mean, just a, just a, like a scientist, you know, in the field with the beakers, Luke pouring it back and forth, only he's getting his legs turned into hamburger, but how he figured that out in round two and how he slowly lured Mar legs turn into hamburger but how he figured that out in round two and how he slowly lured morish into an action fight in which the hood had to 100

show that he has a jaw and that he's willing to bring on and entertain danger more than the benavidez a fun action fight he walked into it luke took it head on like a freaking warrior why don't we tell me the answer why don't we for henry suhudo more often the man has balls dude we did it after this fight the problem was the win aged poorly in the sense of what you brought up it was basically heading into this contest and through the first round marlon maraich was the bantamweight terminator henry suhudo problem solved him and then subsequent to that, everybody else did too. But it was Henry who kind of broke the mold.

It was Henry who... Henry did it... Let's be very clear about this. Henry didn't just beat Marlon Moraes. He showed everyone else how to do it too, and most of them copied his game plan, the one he eventually used to win to a tee. He was boxing heavy, forward pressure, backing him to win to a tee was boxing heavy forward pressure,

backing him up. I mean, just listen to these stats, right? So in the first round, this fight ends inside three in the first round, Mariah lands nine of 14 leg kicks. I mean, he was chewing him up in round two, six of seven. It's still pretty good, but a little bit less in round three, zero of one. He just got walked down the entire time in that third round the amount of gusto the amount of grit you have to have to suffer through that punishment still be in a space to problem solve your ideas actually have to work which they do then you tear the guy down off of his base remember he rolls for an anaconda choke can't finish it eventually puts the guy on his back and pounds him into oblivion up a weight class and beats this dude to become the bantamweight champion and i want to

dial it back one more time to that second round because i think there was a key change in that he hits maurice with a big right hand early in that second round so that gains a little bit of respect but look again most judges gave maurice that round because there was a big right uppercut midway through that open to cut on hen Henry's eye that was not looking that good. And then, dude, he rocked Cejudo in the final five seconds with a right hand that if that round had continued, let's say another 20, 30 seconds, I mean, Cejudo could have been easily finished. He got rocked hard. But what did Cejudo do in round two to set up the big round three? He slowed that pace down, dude.

Landing a few big shots here and there on Marais really got Marais to take a step back and slow down a bit and dig a little bit deeper. And it was key body shots to sort of, but it was sort of like once Cejudo got that chess game down to his terms, then he could start pick up and up the ankles. But he didn't do it with chess. He had to walk in and absolutely walk through hell. Luke, to see Cejudo turn that around at the start around three and now be leaning and laying all over uh Marais in

the corner he may have like beaten the dog out of him like obviously he did he he my in my view BC either through the blueprint or some other thing he changed either Marais that night or he changed his career that night or maybe even both because like he was leaning on him just in so in a way that was direct part of the strategy let me gas this guy out obviously he to get Marais tired he had to stand in there and take some shit but dude the smartness of knowing how to do that and those elbows from top position were I mean that was almost like Dan Hendo against uh against uh you know guy at 199, Luke, when he got all gnarly. Yeah, Hector Lombard.

And you're like, damn, that looks like a street fight. Shit. I mean, dude, he was putting it on him. I just want to point out, here's how many significant strikes Henry Cejudo landed in round one. Ready? Five. Here's how many he landed in round three 47. I mean you want to talk about rising to the occasion and in round two he had 38 by the way maraisha had 31 but of course

maraisha had 16 to his five in round one he had 10 to suhudo's 47 in round three absolutely taking the fight to having the fight brought to him withstanding it and then returning the fight to the opponent and then overwhelming him in the end breaking him in that moment and then changing the trajectory of his career that night an all-time gutsy performance to claim his second weight class title in the ufc and now his third significant combat sports achievement remarkable Remarkable. That moment hit when they stopped the fight and he beats Maraich. I mentioned for me it was like Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia feels of like a true American hero went in there and just outwilled the guy. But obviously it was the skill to set up the outwill.

Anik would exclaim that right there might be the greatest combat sports athlete in terms of resume of all time. Rogan jumps in and says, I don't even know how you could debate it. So Hudo puts the titles on his shoulder, grabs the mic and look, whether it's cringe or not, he always delivers in the moment. My name is Triple C and I'm the best pound for pound fighter of all time. Luke, that led, of course, into Mr. Dana White, wherever you are, I have a hit list, but I want to start getting paid. I want that heavyweight money. I'm a prize fighter. And he would go on to name all the popular name, Bantamweights like Cruz, Garbrandt, Faber, all that. Also put the seat out publicly that I'd like to fight for a title in a third

division at 145 pounds. But Luke, if you were doing what i was doing the whole way which was kind of discounting suhudo at each turn almost you know pointing too much at holes in the narrative this kind of was like okay you shut me up on him as the real fighter there but he did arrive a wave of right circumstance right situation at right time to go from a pretty good fighter to now, what the hell do we do with him all time historically? Because he's a two division champion and he just went through kind of like hell to get there. It wasn't, you know, a fluke. It wasn't the Dillashaw fight. So I can shut up now. Right. He's really that great. Um, now he reveals also, I had a bad sprain the week of the fight and I probably should

have pulled out. And, um, I mean, look, when Anik says that, Luke, what do you say when Anik is saying at this point in his career that this might be the greatest combat sports athlete of all time? Dude, that is a McGregor, like two year, three year. Like I know you knew who I used to be, but this is who I am now. And I'll forever be changed i'm a legend in in the real time right now it's a really difficult thing to measure about like

who's the greatest combat sports athlete because you begin to go like well what if you have like four olympic gold medals in wrestling you know we're winning an olympic gold once every four years is one of the most difficult things to do in human achievement to that point henry suhudo got one then couldn't even make the team for the next cycle, right? So, you know, he did it in one sport, then did it in another. It raises interesting questions about how you compare the two. Certainly, it puts him in a very rarefied air. One of three ever UFC fighters with a gold medal in the Olympics in wrestling, the only one to win a weight class title, then the only one to win effing two of them.

He is obviously a unique, unique specimen. And BC, I want to make one more point, if I may, about this fight, not just rising to the occasion the way that he did, but he's, again, at this point, he's just flapping the sails of the USS cringe, right, doing everything he can in this point to get all the fights that matter to him. And, you know know it's really i hate it because i find it just deeply unfunny and moronic and i can't believe a 30 year old man

plus is engaging in this kind of behavior but the other thing that i don't really like about it is it does work for him i suppose in getting a name it obscures i think to your point like why don't we give this guy more flowers one i think he retired a little early, but two, I think it obscures like that part of his career coincides with his best actual technical work. And the storyline of it kind of overshadows the reality of it. And as a consequence, you get what you get here. And look, he always wanted to fight the best. This should have been Dillashaw in this fight,

like we mentioned. Instead, it was Marais. Yet he got the best version of Marais, and look what he did. And he was willing to come back over the last couple years to fight Volkanovski for the featherweight title so even if you are a critic of him or you so somehow now don't think he ever was as great as he says he was which I get it the cringe gimmick is all about playing up also that you're the greatest of all time and that can get tiring and old first uh easily you can't

you can't not like i mean going back and doing this step by step dude we're watching we're watching one of the greatest i mean see i don't know where you put that in terms of the greatest pound for pound combat sports that same thing when holly holm you know it's like i don't know what to do with those resumes where they can do it across multiple sports it's impressive as shit though and it does make you wish so hudo had the chance to fight more great ones. I kind of wish they would have brought him back against Volkanovski a year ago. I'm the one who's saying, let's do some odd catchweight bout against Conor McGregor, just for fun, for greatness. And everyone's like, stop, that's stupid. I'm like, no, Senator Henry Cejudo wants to be in these types of fights. I'm looking forward to, I mean,

so, you know, he's going to fight Aljamain Sterling. He had one more fight on the journey, of course, against Dominic Cruz, which felt in the moment, like UFC giving him a chance to fight a great name and a payday producing opportunity. And certainly a very viable name to have on your resume. And that, that helps. I don't think that hurts. I think that helps his overall resume, but Luke, we don't know if he's going to beat Sterling. We don't know how many more fights he's going to add on after that, or how many more chances he's going to beat Sterling. We don't know how many more fights he's going to add on after that or how many more chances he's going to take. His legacy, unfortunately, is incomplete, but it is great. And he is all-time great.

I may have to start leaving that door open in the upper room because if he comes back and beats Sterling, we can't keep him out, Luke. We cannot keep this man out. We can't. If he beats Sterling, again, remember that record from 125 to 170? How many guys over 35 have won in UFC title fights? The record is 2-28. If he wins it, he'd be 3. He'd be 3-28.

But okay, let's put a bow on it. The last of the time we've seen him, May 9, 2020. For folks who may not remember, this was that Jacksonville card where the UFC finally got a state commission to regulate them during the COVID shows because at the time, Nevada wasn't going to regulate and California a state commission to regulate them during the COVID shows because at the time Nevada wasn't going to regulate and California wasn't going to regulate. Florida decides to regulate first. They go to Jacksonville. There's no one in attendance, but this was the card that was headlined by Tony and Justin Gaethje, where Justin Gaethje

changed the career of Tony that night, but also that night, Henry Cejudo does yet more amazing shit. He defeats Dominic Cruz on May 9th at 458 of round number two. This is his back-to-back-to-back now TKOs. He only had one of them in his UFC career. Now he has three in a row as a result of this. And BC, sorry, he had a great game plan from the word go. There was a bit of an early rally from Dominic Cruz in round two, but a beautifully timed knee followed by a subsequent onslaught.

Even if you want to say Keith Peterson got in there early, you cannot say anything other than Henry Cejudo looked dialed in from the opening bell. No audience, too, which has to be taken into account in that Jacksonville show. Just an empty arena. It's wild because you may not love the Sergio Pettis fight. It got booed.

But what did he do? He dominated him with one skill, probably, again, as a problem-solving idea. What's the problem that even an aging Dominic Cruz brings in? The idea that with that footwork game plan, if he gets you into a track meet and gets you chasing or second guessing, that's his chance to expose you. He's not going to hurt you, right? In fact, the second fight against DJ when Cejudo won, I said it before, but I'll say it again. In the post-fight interview, he mentioned that DJ's power didn't matter to him, didn't touch him, didn't bother him. When he knows your power is not going to bother you,

he could probably chase you down and get you out of there anyway, which he probably could have done against Cruz anyway. But the quickest path to just shutting him down is to go after the legs, which is exactly what happened to him the fight before against Marais that they did to him, just like DJ beat him the first time by dominating him in that Muay Thai clinch and just bullying him, which was the exact same thing Cejudo did to Wilson Hayes when he turned it around and started the win streak that got him here. This guy is an in-the-moment student of his craft and of the game.

It just so happens he has those other intangibles, too, like poise, like a gas tank, like a fighting spirit to find victory no matter what. Yeah, dude, this was this actually is one of the best wins on his resume because he was barely touched and he just took the wheels right off of a beautiful car and Dominic Cruz and Luke, I hate it that we keep saying it, but here's my final time saying it. Let's remove the cringe gimmick completely. Let's never mention it again because Henry Suhudo was one of the greatest of all time and it's been a pleasure to go up and down to remind myself of that uh special just a special athlete mentally physically passionately um i love it luke but man do i hate the cringe man it doesn't suck it's the worst right so shitty

it's so shitty it's so. There's nothing good about it. You have to honestly be a little bit brain damaged to like it. But I'll say this, BC. I want to point out a couple things about how awesome this performance was from Henry. You know, obviously, there was a question about whether Dominic really deserved it because he had lost to Cody Garber and then had all that time off. And then this was his first fight back. But the reason the UFC made it was,, he was available to hit a big name.

And then three, it was like best Bantamweight ever, or at least, you know, in that conversation, him and Tim or TJ at this point versus this new guy, is there a way to like, you know,

can we get a little extra rub for the new champion if he can get a win? And dude, here's the, so that was part of it. But this is the part that I really remember. Remember how this whole conversation started. The whole conversation started with Henry in 2012 was doing weird stuff, leaving the Brands Brothers, not training with elite teams,

doing his own thing, and it blows up in his face. But here it's the opposite. Here he has a good team that he has slowly built himself around. Eric Alberasi, and obviously putting at the center of that and for many years at that point but also he brings in Eddie Cha the striking coach for this event and it gave him everything he needed to put Dominic Cruz on his heels with his own chopping leg kicks early and put him in a position to win so he starts off making these weird calls about who he's going to be around and where he's going to train and it blows up in his face he ends or being obviously 288 will be the next stop but he ends

his career up to this point by being in the totally opposite position after having some struggles mistakes ups and downs you can tell he's ready to win you can tell he's ready to do all these things by how different the scenery around him looks in the right way. You know, that's beautiful and right on. And you know what I want from him? Because let's be fair, the little flashes of him as a coach, him and Eric Albarracin teaming up. And remember, they joined Whaley Jung's camp and they made some big changes. Well, I mean, look, I'm trying to forget.

They joined like two or three big fighters camps. John Jones. They did some work yeah as a consultant and you can see the impact and the change i not only want to see where that lane goes for sudo i think he could be a great broadcaster if he if he got a little bit serious here i think it could be he could be he does some fight breakdowns on his youtube channel which people seem to like um so i'm saying like ufc live fight pay-per-view like like dc anik and and and captain cringe like i'm telling you i think he actually could still be that crossover star for them now you know as he's as he's slowly transitioning to post-career even

though we're doing this exercise because he's getting back in and fighting again um it all leads to dropping the cringe but yeah luke he is is a smart mind that can help the sport in many ways and in a certain an asset. And I don't know, like we saw the calculated effort by both him and at times the UFC to show the Mexican boxing audience that they've been trying for years to cultivate and cross over and bring in. And they're making big inroads there. Like, why didn't that ever work either, Luke?

Why didn't that ever make Cejudo as marketable and financially strong as he always wanted to be as a fighter? I don't know. I don't, I, I, I don't know why certain things hit when they hit or don't, or I don't have a good explanation for it.

That part misses me, but here's one thing I do think we should end on and just wrap up a little bit BC the 2008 men's freestyle Olympic wrestling team have given so much to MMA and it's not done yet so remember he suhudo wrestled at 55 kilos there's a gentleman by the name of Doug Schwab at 66. Ben Askren was the 74 kilo representative Andy rovat who I think went on to I think he teaches college now or coaches at the collegiate level. Daniel Cormier was your 96-rep.

Steve Mako, the ATT coach, was your 120-kilo rep. This is it. This is the last of the Mohicans for the men's freestyle 2008 Olympic wrestling team. Henry Cejudo is the last one carrying the torch. I don't know what's going to happen at UFC 288 but what a dramatic impact that team has had on obviously wrestling because they did really well and then obviously MMA thereafter that would explain I took notice of the commentary on a lot of these fights and I really liked having DC paired with Cejudo's last couple big wins and fights because there does seem to be a a uh a

connection there a spark and that explains it there with the uh wrestling team background and also luke when we had john annick on rsd man he put over brian stan as an analyst probably stronger than any other human could have and it was like i was thinking in the moment i'm like okay i remember brian stan as an sda it was good dude i he was on like four or five of these fights that we that we re-watched for this with annick and it was a younger annick who was still figuring it out but damn brian stan he reminded me quickly that he was like a finished broadcasting product that would be welcome now on ufc pay-per-views i'd have to imagine if if that was ever something he wanted to do again luke i mean he was great at it he was fantastic but we have a fantastic main event. UFC 288, Henry Cejudo returns from

three years away, basically, to now come back and see if he can still beat a new generation of bantamweights when he fights Aljamain Sterling in the main event, 36 years of age versus 33 for Aljamain Sterling. So it is an uphill climb. It's the last of the 2008 men's freestyle team. It's so many interesting story angles heading into that final fight. That is it. That is the resume of Henry Cejudo. We gave you 90 minutes. I don't know who else would do that. That is Brian Campbell.

I'm Luke Thomas. We thank you guys so much for watching. Final question. Say go ahead. I had to interrupt it. I had to interrupt it. I had to. Was this a real resume review or is this an intervention

that maybe I should drop the cringe bullshit and really go all in on being an American hero and a legend? Well, you saying that is cringe. So I think you're off to a very poor start. All right, there we go. That is Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. Thank you guys so much for watching.

We hope you enjoyed it. What is your favorite memory from Henry Cejjudo's career leave a note in the comments below we appreciate that we'll see you guys next time and until then enjoy the fights