UFC's Henry Cejudo details escape from California wildfires: I was 'literally in a ring of fire'

Henry Cejudo heard his hotel’s fire alarm go off at 2 a.m., woke up, checked out the hallway, but saw nothing to make him think he was in danger.

So he went back to sleep.

What the UFC flyweight contender endured after that, though, sounds like something from a post-apocalyptic movie.

Cejudo was in Santa Rosa, Calif., for a charity event earlier this week when wildfires engulfed Northern California’s wine country. As a result of the blazes, 35 people have died, with thousands of homes and businesses destroyed.

Cejudo is grateful to be alive, but it easily could’ve been different.

In a harrowing account of his experience to ESPN.com, Cejudo said he woke up again hours later to a smoke-filled room. He could tell from his second-floor room that the hotel lobby was on fire and decided his best way to escape was by jumping out of his window.

“I pulled the curtain on the window, and it felt like daylight. It was so bright,” Cejudo said. “There were houses on fire. The hotel was on fire. I could feel the heat.

“I saw the lobby was on fire and knew there was a stairwell to get down there. I thought, ‘If I go out into the hallway and lock myself out, then I really am dead.’ There was only one way out.”

Cejudo jumped to a grassy area down below and injured his foot from landing on a branch on fire. Luckily, he wasn’t immobile. He walked away.

But Cejudo couldn’t believe his eyes as he escaped.

“I was deserted,” he said. “I didn’t see one human being. I didn’t see one cat, dog – nothing. The only noise I heard was the fire.

“As I’m walking up this hill to get a bird’s-eye view of everything, I see two-story mansions on fire. I saw buildings and cars on fire. It was surreal, like a dream. I had no shoes, no time to grab anything but my slacks. I’m walking, barefoot, thinking, ‘Damn, I’m literally in a ring of fire.'”

Cejudo eventually made it up the hill and was picked up by a fire truck, thankful to have been rescued.

Cejudo (11-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC), who’s already training for his Dec. 2 pay-per-view fight against Sergio Pettis (16-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) at UFC 218, left behind his 2008 Olympic wrestling gold medal. While he’s hopeful firefighters will recover it from the wreckage, he’s OK if they don’t.

After all, he still has his life.

“People ask me if I’m sad about it. Nah, I’m happy, bro,” Cejudo said. “It’s weird because that type of adrenaline, you’re scared, but you’re challenged, too. You become courageous in something like that. It’s a crazy feeling knowing you may die.”

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