Former UFC Champion Confirms Talks With AEW

Another one on the list. Mixed martial arts and wrestling go together in a way. There is something about two people meeting in a cage/ring with one person coming out the winner that appeals to sports fans. As a result, it isn’t the biggest surprise that there is some crossover success between the two sports. A lot of mixed martial artists have found success in wrestling and another may be in the works.

Wrestling has a long history of bringing in outside athletes to boost interest. It makes sense on paper, though there are a lot of examples where it doesn’t work whatsoever. However, when it works well, it can work really well, with cases like Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey being all time successes. AEW is throwing their hat into the mix with a mainstream athlete and former UFC Champion.

In a new interview with Adam Glyn, former UFC Bantamweight and Flyweight Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Henry Cejudo has confirmed he has spoken to AEW about possibly wrestling a match. Cejudo mentioned wrestling at an unnamed pay per view event. AEW’s next event is All Out is September 5, though a location has not been confirmed. Cejudo retired from mixed martial arts on May 9 after a successful Bantamweight Title defense.

That could be interesting. Check out some other mixed martial artists in wrestling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TeQpx-8fLM

Opinion: This is something that I could see happening, though Cejudo isn’t the most famous name in mixed martial arts. At the same time, there is a possibility that he is using the potential AEW match as a negotiating ploy against UFC, which is a rather smart idea. I’m not sure if we’ll be seeing Cejudo wrestle, but with that kind of a resume, it would make a lot of sense to bring him in if possible.

Do you think Cejudo will wrestle? Which mainstream athlete would make the best wrestler? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!