UFC star Henry Cejudo isn’t just a champ in the octagon—he’s also a champ on the block. When a hit-and-run suspect showed up in his neighborhood, Cejudo didn’t hesitate to bring his takedown skills to the streets.
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According to TMZ, a speeding car collided with the house next door to Cejudo’s residence in Phoenix, Arizona, on the evening of April 4.
The UFC star gave an interview shortly after the incident, recounting how the driver involved in the crash attempted to flee the scene. His neighbor stepped in to stop the driver, but the situation escalated when the man punched the neighbor.
At that point, Cejudo felt he had no choice but to intervene. Clad in gold pajamas, he took action, ultimately body-slamming the suspect. Police arrived shortly after and placed the man under arrest.
Henry Cejudo Calls Neighbors ‘Lucky to Be Alive’ Following Hit-and-Run
Meanwhile, Cejudo believes the situation could have been much worse.
“You can see inside this room, if someone was standing in there, they would be dead. All these kids are lucky to be alive,” Cejudo later explained in a statement obtained by MMA Junkie. “Once they got out I told them, ‘Hey, you guys aren’t going nowhere.’ The owner of this house tried to stop them and said you need to be held accountable. One of them ended up [punching] my neighbor, and that’s when I had to step in.
“Pretty much all my neighbors came in to fight the situation. I ended up lifting him, dropping him, slapped him around a little bit and just pretty much controlled him,” he recalled.
Cejudo described the damage to his friend’s home as “devastating” and noted that earlier that day, the same street where the accident occurred had hosted a block party with children.
“If it was a couple hours earlier, someone would be seriously injured,” Cejudo added.
Cejudo is a former UFC Flyweight and Bantamweight Champion and was once the youngest American to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, achieving this at the 2008 Summer Olympics.