Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Bantamweights

7. Henry Cejudo

This may seem a little crazy at first glance, as Cejudo is mostly associated with flyweight. However, he actually has seven fights at 135 pounds, winning all of them. While the first four were fairly insignificant, being bouts against lesser competition prior to entering the UFC, he beat Dustin Kimura at bantamweight in 2014. He then had his two most significant fights at the weight in 2019 and 2020. First, he came back from early adversity to stop Marlon Moraes via ground-and-pound in Round 3. People forget this, but Moraes was seen as one of the best fighters in the sport then and was the favorite against Cejudo. Cejudo then fought Dominick Cruz, whom we will see later on in the list, and handed him his first knockout loss late in Round 2, started by a brutal knee to the skull. I don't need to tell you about what makes Cejudo great; he was an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling with some of the greatest cardio in the sport's history, almost able to match previous inclusion Demetrious Johnson in that regard, and eventually developed fantastic, dynamic striking as well. Cejudo retired after the triumph against Cruz at only 33 years old, but already having done enough to be considered one of the greatest fighters ever.

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