Henry Cejudo is picking up exactly where he left off. Nearly three years to the day of his retirement as UFC bantamweight champion, Cejudo returns to challenge reigning titleholder Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288 on Saturday. The Olympic gold medalist left the game as one of combat sport's biggest success stories and has people perplexed about what his return will look like.
Cejudo stepped away from competition in the prime of his career. His active six-fight winning streak included a stint as simultaneous two-division champion at bantamweight and flyweight, a contentious split decision win over the all-time great Demetrious Johnson and three consecutive TKO stoppages. It was his final three performances that showed the most promise. Cejudo stopped T.J. Dillashaw, Marlon Moraes and Dominick Cruz with strikes -- three fighters far more renowned for their striking than Cejudo was. It punctuated "his technical maturation as a fighter," according to CBS Sports analyst and "Morning Kombat" co-host Luke Thomas, and his evolution from Olympic wrestler to world-class mixed martial artist.
"In his last few fights, he didn't win at all with wrestling," Thomas said. "He won it almost exclusively with striking and did it against the very toughest foes of his career, in general, again there are some obvious mitigating circumstances there. A guy who has been a dynamic athlete since I first heard his name."
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That elite, well-rounded skillset is why oddsmakers have Cejudo as a marginal favorite over the reigning champ despite not having fought in more than 1,000 days. Caesars Sportsbook currently lists Cejudo as a -115 favorite against Sterling. Sterling is a phenomenal grappler who excels with the back mount. There is a heavyweight-sized question mark about whether or not Sterling has the offensive wrestling to implement his ground game against the Olympic gold medalist. Sterling is an effective but not spectacular striker. We saw steady growth in Cejudo's hands and feet, but not enough data was mined to determine its limitations.
Cejudo is one of only four UFC fighters to achieve champ-champ status. He joins rare company alongside Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier and Amanda Nunes. Yet Cejudo's talent is sometimes overshadowed by his "cringe" persona and the circumstances surrounding his short stint on top. Dillashaw was terribly depleted when cutting to flyweight. His war with Moraes aged poorly following Moraes' freefall in the fights that followed. Cruz hadn't fought in three-and-a-half years and the fight took place in the first show during the pandemic.
"I was maybe one of those people who overly penalized him when talking about the growing legacy of Henry Cejudo," CBS Sports analyst and "Morning Kombat" co-host Brian Campbell said. "He was an opportunistic fighter who took advantage of multiple opportunities that allowed him to have a quicker shot at calling himself one of the greatest than he necessarily had earned.
"While that's still somewhat true, that way of thinking completely discounts the fact that he's one of the greatest mixed martial arts in the history of this sport. When you put the Olympic glory of wrestling with that, he becomes some kind of combat sports Jim Thorpe folk hero."
One week after the UFC officially vacated Cejudo's title on May 24, 2020, the promotion's official bantamweight Top 15 rankings looked like this.
| Fighter |
|---|
1. Marlon Moraes |
2. Aljamain Sterling |
3. Petr Yan |
4. Cory Sandhagen |
5. Raphael Assuncao |
6. Jose Aldo |
7. Pedro Munhoz |
8. Jimmie Rivera |
9. Cody Garbrandt |
10. Rob Font |
| 11. Dominick Cruz |
| 12. Cody Stamann |
| 13. John Dodson |
| 14. Song Yadong |
| 15. Marlon Vera |
A lot has changed in three years. Moraes, the No. 1 ranked bantamweight contender at the time, is currently in the PFL and riding a six-fight losing streak, all by stoppage. Assuncao and Aldo, No. 5 and No. 6 at the time, have both retired from MMA. Rivera and Dodson have tried their hands at bare-knuckle boxing. Even Yan, who won the bantamweight championship in Cejudo's absence, is hanging on by a thread after three straight losses to some of bantamweight's best.
There have also been success stories since then, particularly among the younger crop of fighters. Sterling, Sandhagen, Song, Vera and Font have all emerged as premier talents. Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O'Malley were not even in the rankings at the time of Cejudo's retirement -- now they're No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
Cejudo has remained firmly entrenched in MMA despite his absence from the Octagon. He has become something of a super coach. UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones enlisted Cejudo ahead of his long-awaited and ultimately dominant return. Zhang Weili worked with Cejudo to recapture the UFC women's strawweight champion. Cejudo also worked with light heavyweight Jiri Prochazka and flyweight Deiveson Figueiredo during their championship campaigns. It remains to be seen how effective Cejudo's physical skills are three years later, but his mental weapons are as sharp as ever.
"Even though he gets his pound-for-pound recognition, sometimes his legacy is in debate," Campbell said. "It's hard to really put a firm handle given the shortness of it. He got a chance to become a two-division champion very early. Some would say before someone of that caliber had earned it. But when you go back and you combine it all, he became an efficient problem solver as a fighter.
"He did lean on good opportunities -- getting to fight Dillashaw, weight drain, those kinds of things -- to stamp his passport, but 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 who, to be honest, doesn't get the love that he actually deserves."
