Henry Cejudo: Wrestling 'a lot tougher than MMA,' but UFC career provides a living

If you watched Saturday’s UFC on FOX 13 event, you could be forgiven if you didn’t realize bantamweight newcomer Henry Cejudo is a world-class wrestler. Lately, he’s been focusing on his striking skills – and for good reason.

Cejudo (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC), an Olympic gold-medalist wrestler, used a striking-heavy game plan to earn a dominant decision victory over bantamweight Dustin Kimura (11-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC).

The fight, which streamed on UFC Fight Pass prior to the night’s televised bouts at Phoenix’s U.S. Airways Center, marked Cejudo’s official UFC debut (after an earlier one went awry with an unsuccessful cut to flyweight). After the fight, a confident Cejudo discussed his wrestling past and why adding striking skills is such a priority.

“I hope nobody takes offense to this, but I think (wrestling is) a lot tougher than MMA,” he said. “When you become the best in the world in wrestling, you’re the best in the world. This isn’t two, three events. This is once every four years.”

However, MMA has provided him something that wrestling never has: the ability to make a real living. Cejudo said he’d get paid $1,500 or so to win nationals, and $3,000 was a bigger payday in the wrestling world.

But MMA?

“Here, it’s 30, 40, 50, 60 – a hundred thousand you can end up making,” he said. “It’s not so much MMA is the next step up, because it’s not. And you can confirm it with Daniel Cormier and some of the best wrestlers, but I feel like it’s just a way we can make a living and buy a nice car and have a nice home.”

Check out the full conversation above.

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