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MMA

11th Feb 2016

Henry Cejudo has made a pretty incredible claim ahead of UFC 197

Baby steps!

Darragh Murphy

Henry Cejudo is a beast, granted.

The undefeated flyweight is considered the biggest threat to Demetrious Johnson’s 125 lb title but he may want to chill out with his talk of being one win away from becoming the greatest of all time.

Cejudo meets Johnson for the flyweight title at April’s UFC 197 and he believes that a victory, coupled with the gold medal he won at the 2008 Olympics, would make him the best fighter in all of combat sports.

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“Until somebody breaks my record of becoming a gold medalist and winning a UFC belt, I would consider – I would hope the people would see me as probably the greatest combat athlete to compete in the sport because of the accolades I have,” Cejudo told Mike Bohn of MMAjunkie.

“Holly Holm is there, a boxing world champion and now an MMA world champion, but I feel the purity of the Olympics and the UFC belt, it would just – it’s hard to top.”

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“Every Friday I go out to the inner-city schools in Phoenix. I don’t get paid. I don’t work for a nonprofit. I go out on my own, and I call schools and go out there because I care. I go out there, and it means more to me than a lot of things, even more than this championship, because I’m making a difference in somebody’s life.

“I get the chance to go out there and meet these kids and get them out of this rut. This is what this championship means to me. It’s just a microphone. It’s just a platform to continue to inspire others on a higher and bigger level. I’m living my dream now. Winning the UFC belt is just icing on the cake.”

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Cejudo will make history if he manages to dethrone ‘Mighty Mouse’ as, of the 18 Olympians to have competed in the UFC, there has been none who have won gold in both.

And while we’d agree that a victory over Johnson would be remarkable and historic, we think that Cejudo may need a few more mixed martial arts wins under his belt before he can make the argument that he’s the greatest combat sports athlete.