Henry Cejudo Likely Out of Competition Remainder of 2019
Recently, Olympic gold medalist and UFC Flyweight and Bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo posted a picture of himself on Instagram laying in a hospital bed with his arm in a sling. It appears that the champ tore his left rotator cuff in his fight against Marlon Morales that took place on June 8th. Despite the injury, Cejudo was able to earn the victory with a third round TKO.
Even though Cejudo has been a high level competitor for over a decade, he reports this is his first injury that he has ever had that requires surgery. In his instagram post, he thanked Dr. Tokish at the Mayo Clinic for performing what sounds to be a successful surgery. It is estimated it will take up to five month before Cejudo is able to train again. This means we won’t see him fight until 2020.
Take your wrestling to the NEXT LEVEL with Gold Medal Wrestling. Click Learn More!
Cejudo appears to be in high spirits about the whole situation, as he normally is, but this injury comes at a bad time for him in his MMA career as he is coming off a wave of high profile victories in the UFC. In his past three fights, Cejudo has beaten longtime champ Demetrious Johnson via split decision to earn the Flyweight belt. He then beat TJ Dillashaw via TKO (Dillashaw was the Bantamweight champ but moved down to flyweight for the fight), and most recently Marlon Morales to solidify his champion status at two weights.
By defeating Morales and becoming a two weight UFC champ, Cejudo joins a short list of two weight champions which includes Conor McGregor (145lbs and 155lbs) and former Olympic teammate Daniel Cormier (205lbs and heavyweight).
With Cejudo sidelined for now, it will be interesting to see what the UFC does with both the Flyweight and Bantamweight classes. There is a high likelihood that the UFC will create an interim title at Bantamweight and possibly at Flyweight as well. There have been rumors for awhile now that the UFC is going to drop the Flyweight division. Last year the UFC released a large number of Flyweight fighters from there roster. With Cejudo now holding two belts and out for an extended period, they may decide to use this opportunity to eliminate the Flyweight division entirely.
Hopefully Cejudo will be able to take these next couple of months off of competition to recharge for 2020. He is known for having a very positive outlook on life and you can be certain that he will turn this injury into a positive experience.
With his success and fame, Cejudo has been such a great ambassador for the sport of wrestling. He often posts technique videos on his Instagram page. If you would like to learn more in depth wrestling techniques from Cejudo, check out “Gold Medal Wrestling by Henry Cejudo”.