Henry Cejudo, many regard him as very cringey, he has even embraced this title himself and adopted the nickname ‘The King of Cringe.’ Armed with a rubber toy snake to beat off the ground when having a face with former UFC Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, the snake referencing Dillashaw’s switch in training camps from Team Alpha Male to Team Elevation to train under the tutelage of Duane Ludwig. This became even more symbolic as TJ Dillashaw is now suspended for going into the Cejudo fight full of EPO, making the fact that Cejudo finished Dillashaw in under 40 seconds even more delightful, the snake comment originally surfacing from Conor McGregor’s comments about Dillashaw on The Ultimate Fighter. Just like that, history was made, but unfortunately, Cejudo doesn’t get much credit due to his satirical personality. People need to give the man credit where credit is due, from August 2018 to January 2019 he won a decision against Demetrious Johnson, ending the UFC record for most title defences in UFC history and after this outstanding achievement to claim the Flyweight championship he then made his first defence of the title against Dillashaw, after the Dillashaw suspension the title was vacated and there was a match made to determine the new Bantamweight champion, that being between Henry Cejudo moving up to take on surging contender and former World Series of Fighting champion, Marlon Moraes. It was an entertaining fight which started off competitive before it slowly made the transition from competitive to one-sided as the pressure striking, clinch control, takedowns and top pressure of the flyweight champion overwhelmed Marlon Moraes into succumbing to a (T)KO victory for the now Champ Champ of the Flyweight and Bantamweight division. Cejudo earned himself a UFC Championship in 2019 and earned his first one in 2018 and he earned his well discussed Olympic Gold Medal in 2008 but this isn’t where the journey began.
One of seven children saw the family moving a lot through numerous states, this was due to Cejudo’s mother struggling to find steady employment due to immigrating from Mexico. Working numerous jobs to support her family of seven children was no easy feat, the houses were that of absolute poverty, glorified crack houses in some of the worst ghettos in the street. One thing that Henry did during this time was wrestle and he wrestled very well, at age nineteen he was able to win the Pan American Gold Medal and moved to the United States Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This was monumental for Henry as it was at the USOTC that he was able to sleep in a bed of his own for the first time in his life without having to share it with a sibling, it took nineteen years before he was met with this luxury. The change was monumental towards his success as he won Pan American Gold again in 2007. The biggest moment coming in 2008 when he became the youngest Mexican American wrestler in history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in history. He kept this achievement for eight years until Kyle Snyder won the Gold for the US Team in 2016 at age 20. What Cejudo has proven here is that his life was met with dominating hardship and he persevered into becoming arguably one of the greatest combat sports athletes of all time, indeed this was The Messenger’s message.
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