Henry Cejudo is an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, prodigiously gifted, charismatic and should become a huge star in the UFC’s lightest weight class, where drawing power is dearly needed.
Sadly it appears that Cejudo’s chance at a UFC championship run is withering on the vine before it has the time to flower. The undefeated prospect pulled out of his UFC debut fight on the undercard of UFC 177 due to a bad weight cut. This comes after a series of fights on the regional circuit where Cejudo had to remove himself from competition or compete at a catchweight due to similar weight issues.
All this follows a pattern which has manifested itself since shortly after Cejudo stood atop the Olympic podium in Beijing. Though he made an attempt to make a second Olympic team, his preparations were made away from major wrestling training centers. During this time Cejudo seemed far more concerned with activities other than wrestling: endorsements, speaking gigs, a play about his life. To this day, he still maintains ties to the dubious self-improvement industry with his involvement in the #besomebody “movement”. Taken together, this behavior implies a young man who likely lacks the interest in doing what it takes to become a world champion combat athlete.
Inferences from actions are one thing, but only someone who knows the UFC’s newest flyweight can provide meaningful insight into what is going on in his head. Few people on this planet know Cejudo better than Terry Brands. From 2005-2008, Brands served as Cejudo’s primary coach on his quest for Olympic gold.
Wrestling’s most legendary coach, Dan Gable, molded Brands into a two-time NCAA champ, two-time world champ, and Olympic Bronze medalist. Brands, in turn, molded Cejudo into an Olympic champion. In the tradition of any product of the Gable coaching tree, Brands creates winning wrestlers like Cejudo by demanding everything they have to give. Brands wants wrestlers to commit all their effort, all their time and all of their very being to the sport of wrestling. Consequently, Brands’ students have accomplished amazing things, particularly Cejudo.
Bloody Elbow had a chance to talk with Brands this week to get his thoughts on Cejudo’s current direction. The current associate head coach of the storied University of Iowa wrestling program did not mince words, of course, he never does. He knows Cejudo can do better, and he knows just what the young athlete can accomplish with the right guidance.
“I’d put him at the upper end of talent, but not automatic,” Brands explained. “But He couldn’t let things go.”
“To explain what I mean, he has the talent to be the best in the world in whatever he can do, but he doesn’t have the talent to do that without a disciplined approach. He’s not one of these guys who can do it without a proper training routine, eating right, getting enough rest.”
Terry Brands is famous for his intensity. (Photo Credit: University of Iowa Athletics)
Cejudo and Brands’ partnership began in 2005 when Cejudo moved to live and train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where Brands was the resident freestyle coach. Upon Cejudo’s arrival, Brands took the first tentative steps toward forming a strong coach-athlete bond.
“When he first got [to the Olympic Training Center] I first sat back and learned by watching him, forging trust,” Brands recalled. “To be a good mentor you have to have a relationship built on trust.”
“I had to make sure that he understood that if he messed up, he wasn’t out. There were going to be times when we didn’t see eye to eye, but I wasn’t going to give up on him. This had to be abundantly clear because I think throughout his life he had a history of people pushing him aside when he messed up.”
Before long, Brands had established a powerful rapport with the young wrestler; a bond which allowed Cejudo to absorb the world champion’s tutelage at a fantastic rate. The two became so close, and Cejudo’s coach occupied such a pivotal role in his life, that some observers have described Brands as a father figure to Cejudo.
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“It was one of the top five best relationships I had out of all the guys I ever coached,” Brands remembered fondly. “He knew I could get him out of any funk. We were always around together, and we developed a strong mental connection. If one day his high crotch was off by a quarter inch, he could come to me and I’d barely have to explain, he’d understand immediately.”
Sadly, in the last few years, this rich and rewarding relationship between the Olympic champion and his mentor has withered into only a handful of conversations throughout the year.
“I speak to him now once a month, maybe,” Brands said. “Every other month in the winter. [The conversations] aren’t deep. They are mostly small talk and not really connecting like we did in the past. I haven’t lost track of him, and I don’t see him fulfilling the obligations he says he is.
“I don’t see the Henry Cejudo who was balls in, who would give his life to whatever he committed himself to. But I’m not his coach and it’s not my job to tell him this stuff.”
The finest moment in Cejudo and Brand’s collaboration also marked the turning point in their relationship. Though Cejudo first kept his Olympic triumph in perspective, he soon began to fall prey to some of the distractions which accompany such high profile success. Brands has not forgotten how his student changed.
“He was super humble after [he won the gold medal], he knew he accomplished what he set out to do. There was this let down and this release. Everything just came together and there was an overwhelming sense of satisfaction.
“After that, though, you started hearing about the million dollar smile. His brother got him signed with some sort of agent. He suddenly had different friends, and I just sort of lost track of him.”
Though after the Beijing Olympics Cejudo followed a path which took him away from the wrestling mat, it appeared that in his final preparations for a second Olympic run he would reunite with his old coach. In May of 2011, Cejudo announced he would move to Iowa City to train with Brands at the Hawkeye Wrestling Club. This was not to be, however, as Cejudo cancelled his plans, citing disagreements with Brands related to the time demands from endorsement obligations.
Brands provided his side of the story.
“Henry never actually made it to train here. This is how it went: his agent called me, telling me Henry was coming down, telling me what we were going to do and how we were going to do them. I told him that I don’t talk to agents.”
“So I talked to Henry and he told me that he’d be down the next week or the week after that.”
“Then his agent calls again and says that Henry will arrive at the airport and that we need to have a car waiting for him, and we need to make other accommodations. “
“I don’t talk to agents, Henry knows what he needs to do, he needs to get his butt down here, he needs to find a place to live, get a lease and do what he needs to do.”
“The agent isn’t the guy who is going to be getting up at 5:30 in the morning. Henry needs to get here, get his U-Haul, pull up, I’ll help unload him. And I’ll get him ready for the Olympics in the greatest training environment in the world.”
“Well apparently that wasn’t going to work.”
“I finally spoke to Henry and he sounded like people didn’t believe that he would go through with the training, and getting his body ready, and being competitive again.”
“He was in a bad place mentally, and I put that on the people he was hanging out with.”
“He was saying things like, ‘the only reason he’d go to Iowa is to connect to my coach.’ Like Iowa is some hell hole, but it isn’t and it doesn’t matter anyway. Home is where the heart is.”
“He didn’t come and just never put himself in a position anywhere to commit himself fully to the sport.”
Terry Brands instructs NCAA Champion Derek St. John (Photo Credit: University of Iowa Athletics)
The rest is history. Cejudo would lose in the semifinals of the Olympic Trials Challenge Tournament in 2012 (where he made 121 pounds, incidentally, and looked pretty damn good), retire from wrestling and embark on an MMA career. Brands has kept tabs on the Olympian turned fighter, and is aware of his recent struggles with the scale, as well as his involvement in various public speaking and commercial ventures. The Iowa coach attributes Cejudo’s problems not to anything physical; instead, he openly questions whether the new UFC signee is fully committed to his career as combat athlete.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Henry right now,” Brands observed.
“What’s wrong is: does he want to go on the [speaking] circuit and tell a story or does he want to compete?”
“If you want to compete, let’s get back to business and compete. You can’t dabble, that’s not how it works. If he’s doing that he’s living in a false reality if he thinks he’s going to be the best in the world. I’m not even sure that’s what he wants anymore.”
“If you want to live the easy life and retire, then retire, otherwise, get back to work.”
Brands is unfailingly frank, even blunt, but when he speaks of former pupil, his genuine concern for the young fighter bleeds through his words. To close the interview, Brands offered some advice to Cejudo.
“I would say to him what I would say to any athlete, get an environment where you trust with your leadership, and reconnect with yourself. It doesn’t matter who your coach is, you got to believe in yourself, and that’s where Henry needs to start.”