The Film Room: Henry Cejudo

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Henry Cejudo has the chance to make history this Saturday when he defends his flyweight championship against current bantamweight champion, T.J. Dillashaw, in the main event of UFC Fight Night 143. Cejudo is fresh off a victory over former 125-pound kingpin Demetrious Johnson, and now has the chance to dethrone the king of bantamweight in order to make his own case as one of the greatest flyweights to ever compete.

Although we haven’t seen much of his grappling in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Cejudo is one of the most accomplished freestyle wrestlers to ever step inside a cage. He’s a three-time gold medalist in the Pan American Championship, and in 2008 he became the youngest American ever to become an Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling.



Cejudo’s takedown of choice is a lifting single leg that he has been using since his wrestling days. Instead of grabbing the leg and driving the opponent to the mat, Cejudo will lock his hands behind the knee and simply yank the leg upwards to secure the takedown.



Cejudo likes to finesse his opponents to the ground when possible, but he also possesses his fair share of power takedowns and trips and throws from the clinch. Against Johnson, Cejudo looked to shoot for the legs and work his way up to over/under in the clinch and use an inside trip to get him down to the mat. The strangest aspect of Cejudo’s success in mixed martial arts is how he rarely uses what got him to the dance. Instead, he relies on his striking to get things done and his grappling background is used purely as support. We still have no idea what Cejudo can do on the ground and it will be interesting to see who he chooses to use it against.

via Gfycat

Since joining the UFC in 2014, Cejudo has become a fine striker who relies on the basics instead of having a deep bag of tricks. Cejudo is adept on the lead and on the counter, but he often does his best work when coming forward with quick combos before resetting at range. One thing to notice about his leading attacks is how he rarely overextends or throws more than two-three strikes at a time. This allows him to never be out of position to defend, and since the threat of his grappling is always there, opponents don’t know whether to cover up and defend the strikes or drop their hands to defend a takedown.



Something else interesting about Cejudo’s striking is his liberal use of leading and intercepting knees to the body. Against Wilson Reis, Cejudo routinely intercepted Reis’ advances with a quick knee to the sternum. Occasionally, he even jabbed his way into the pocket and fired off a leading knee to the body.



Knockout power in flyweights is a rare trait, but Cejudo proved in the Reis fight that he can end a fight with his hands. After picking his opponent apart for two rounds, Cejudo landed this perfectly placed right straight that dropped Reis and proceeded to finish him with ground-and-pound.





Something to watch for in his fight with Dillashaw is his ability to catch kicks. Against Johnson, Cejudo was able to catch a couple of his kicks and looked to strike immediately after. Although he wasn’t able to land anything clean, Dillashaw has had problems in the past with his low kicks getting countered and I’m confident this is a strategy Cejudo will try to implement.