Henry Cejudo Olympics: Medals, Record and All About the Ex-UFC Double Champ’s Wrestling Feats

Henry Cejudo‘s time in the UFC is not over just yet. ‘Triple C’ has had an illustrious career over the years where he became the champion of both, the flyweight and the bantamweight division. Back in 2020, Cejudo won his title defense against Dominick Cruz just to announce his retirement post-fight.

After staying out of action for almost three years, Cejudo would turn back on his retirement announcement and enter the cage once again to fight Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight title but would lose after a close match. Now, he’s looking forward to using his wrestling skills against Merab Dvalishvilli at UFC 298. Here’s how good of a wrestler ‘Triple C’ really is.

Henry Cejudo is certified gold

In 2008, Henry Cejudo went on to become the youngest American to win an Olympic gold in wrestling. He was 21 years old at the time and his record would remain unbroken for eight more years. This also makes Cejudo the only UFC fighter to have both, UFC gold and Olympic gold to his name.

Cejudo had had an interesting wrestling career that started back in his college days. In fact, in 2004, he had already won at Fargo Junior freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. He also won a silver at the Junior World Championships back in 2006.

Of course, two years later in 2008, Cejudo would go on to defeat the likes of legendary wrestler Radoslav Velikov and Japan’s Tomohiro Matsunaga to secure an Olympic gold for himself. And this wasn’t the last time he’d try for the Olympics.

After winning his gold, ‘Triple C’ went on a three-year break from competing and came back against Rasul Mashezo only in 2011. He defeated him in grand fashion at the Beat the Streets Gala but it looked like he fell short by a little bit. So no, Henry Cejudo was not able to make it to the Olympic team of 2012 but his effort and victory were still massive. But after working so hard to become a gold medalist, how is it possible that he ended up losing his medal?

Cejudo had a rough night in California

That’s right, Henry Cejudo had to make a last-minute exit, and that too out of a 2nd-floor window. This was to get away from a raging fire in a hotel at 4:30 in the morning. All of it happened during the 2017 wildfires that ruined California. Cejudo told reporters that he had to leave his medal behind but was hoping it would be found once things had settled down.

Watch This Story: UFC 282: Blachowich vs Ankalaev highlights draw in the title fight judge’s controversial decision for Paddy Pimblett more

However, after waiting for almost a year, Cejudo was convinced he was never going to see it again. “They had scraped the hotel,” he said. “They said about 2,000 degrees, they say that anything will melt. Gold will melt. Metal will melt.”

“Everything will just disintegrate, so that’s long gone. I just have to go to the United States Olympic Committee and get my replica, and that’s pretty much it. They’ll replace it, but it says replica, unfortunately.” So later when Henry Cejudo was seen wearing his medal, you can be sure it wasn’t the one originally placed around his neck upon winning.

Perhaps becoming a multi-divisional UFC champion helped with the loss of his beloved medal. At least we hope so!

Also Read: Henry Cejudo Issues a Warning as He Gets Back to UFC Roster After 3 Years