UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber wants to spoil Henry Cejudo’s Real American Freestyle debut.
Faber and Cejudo will lock horns in the main event of RAF 06 on February 28 at the Mullett Arena of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, and “The California Kid” is confident that he can score a win over a high-caliber wrestler like Cejudo.
“Triple C” captured Olympic gold at the 2008 Summer Olympics [men’s freestyle 55 kg category]. Apart from that, as a senior freestyle wrestler, he has major titles under his belt. Cejudo is a multiple-time Pan American Championships gold medalist and a U.S. national champion. He also won a gold medal in wrestling at the 2007 Pan American Games.
The former UFC double champ decided to hang up his gloves last year at UFC 323, where he lost to Payton Talbott by decision.
Now, Cejudo is returning to his wrestling roots and will face Urijah Faber, who was an NCAA wrestler.
Urijah Faber’s last UFC bout was in 2019 against Petr Yan, which he lost by knockout in Round 3. However, from 2021 to 2024, Faber kept himself busy by competing in several grappling, combat jiu-jitsu, and wrestling matches. In his last grappling bout, Faber faced Bibiano Fernandes at ADXC 5 on August 3, 2024, and won by decision.
Urijah Faber plans to spoil Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo’s wrestling return: “I’m looking to win”
Ahead of the RAF 06 showdown with the wholesome Olympic champion, Urijah Faber spoke to MMA Junkie. Faber believes defeating an Olympic gold medalist like Cejudo would be a major addition to his resume. He said:
“The way I see it is I’m getting a bye to the Olympic finals. As a guy that needs some great excuses and is going to be delusional, I’ve got all sorts of reasons why I’m going to defeat the Olympic gold medalist… First off, Henry Cejudo… that guy was working his bu*t off. He was, ‘What do I have to do to be an Olympic champion?’… And that was a long time ago, you know, and I haven’t been a man possessed in a long time. I don’t feel like he has been either.”
He added that he will have a size advantage over “Triple C” at RAF 06:
“He also is an Olympic gold medalist at 121 pounds, which, you know, I don’t know many guys that are 121 pounds. Pretty small. So I think I’ve got a size advantage on that front. He just competed at 135 pounds. I just competed at 160 pounds this last weekend and had a lot of fun… I was a guy that got my bu*t whooped by guys like Henry Cejudo, T.J. Dillashaw, Cody Garbrandt, Joseph Benavidez, and Chad Mendes, and the list goes on and on when I started wrestling. I started wrestling when I was 13, I didn’t start when I was four, five, six years old with great coaches and competing.”
Lastly, Urijah Faber opined that he is confident, as he has sufficient experience as a mixed-media artist to get past Cejudo, before adding:
“I believe in myself. I’m looking forward to three hard two-minute rounds with 30 seconds rest of trying to get an Olympic medal in my resume. And that’s the way I’m looking at it. So I’m excited to go against a guy like Henry Cejudo. I have a lot of respect for Henry. I love him as a competitor. I love everything about Henry. I love his corky personality. I love how he doesn’t care what people think. I love how he walks to the beat of his own drum, and I respect him a lot as a competitor and as a wrestler, but I’m looking to win.”
Check out Urijah Faber’s comments below (6:10):