In a revealing conversation on the Jaxxon Podcast, former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo made a bold claim about his career accomplishments, asserting that his Olympic gold medal in wrestling stands above his UFC championships.
When asked if his Olympic championship exists “in its own category” compared to his UFC flyweight and bantamweight titles, Cejudo responded emphatically: “That’s above all, dude. Olympics more than being a UFC champ. How easy.”
The host seemed surprised by Cejudo’s certainty, prompting “Triple C” to elaborate on his perspective. “Of course. First and only,” Cejudo explained, highlighting the prestige of Olympic competition. “UFC is not an MMA is not even an Olympics.”
Cejudo, who captured Olympic gold in freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Beijing Games before transitioning to mixed martial arts, pointed to wrestling’s ancient heritage as part of his reasoning.
“The sport of wrestling has been… it’s considered the only sport in the world. If you look at the artifacts of it, you know, back in the Greco-Roman days, I mean, it goes back to even further than that,” Cejudo stated. “So it’s been a competition since… who knows when.”
In contrast, he noted MMA’s relatively recent emergence: “MMA is still kind of fairly new. It’s probably, well, since 92. It’s 30 some years old.”
Cejudo stands in rarefied air as one of only a handful of athletes to achieve championship status at both Olympic and UFC levels. After winning Olympic gold at 21 years old, he went on to become UFC flyweight champion in 2018 by defeating Demetrious Johnson. He later added the bantamweight title in 2019 by stopping Marlon Moraes, making him one of only four fighters in UFC history to hold championships in two divisions simultaneously.
Despite his accomplishments in the octagon, Cejudo clearly views his Olympic achievement as the pinnacle of his athletic career. His perspective offers insight into how elite athletes who have competed across different sporting domains may rank their various accomplishments.
Cejudo’s stance has sparked debate among combat sports fans, with opinions divided on whether Olympic glory truly outshines UFC championship status in terms of prestige and difficulty.
