Henry Cejudo is a former UFC double champion, having held both the men’s flyweight and bantamweight titles at the same time. Aside from being one of the best MMA fighters of all time, Cejudo is also an Olympic Gold Medalist as he won the top prize in freestyle wrestling in the 2008 Olympics representing the United States of America.
Other than his brilliance in the combat sports world, Cejudo is a renowned coach and known for his linguistic skills. As fans many know, Henry Cejudo is married to Ana Karolina, who hails from Brazil. They met sometime in 2020 after a short period of dating and got engaged a year later, in June 2021.
Cejudo finally married the woman of his dreams in September 2021. In a lot of social media posts that he shared, Cejudo can be seen interacting with his wife in Portuguese. It is important to mention that Ana is not a native English speaker.
But not just his wife Ana Karolina, In the UFC 288 countdown episode, Cejudo could be seen interacting in Portuguese with the former UFC men’s flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo. Figgy trained with Triple C for his third bout with Brandon Moreno at UFC 270 and won the bout via unanimous decision. So one may ask, how did Cejudo learn to speak the language so fluently?
While the former UFC champ has not commented on how he got a grasp of the language, Cejudo has some Brazilian connections both in his personal life and professional career. Aside from his wife Ana Karolina, Cejudo dated another Brazilian, Amanda Dallago Chaves.
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Other than that, Cejudo’s wrestling coach Eric Albarracin is also a fluent Portuguese speaker. So it is entirely possible that he picked up the language due to the influence around him. Moreover, Cejudo has Mexican roots and can speak fluent Spanish, so it’s not that tough for Cejudo to get a grasp on the Portuguese language.
How many languages can Henry Cejudo speak?
Henry Cejudo speaks perfect English and the fans have heard him cut many pro-wrestling-style type promos in the past. Aside from English and Portuguese, Cejudo is fluent in Spanish.
Cejudo speaks fluent Spanish thanks to his Mexican heritage. Cejudo’s parents are Mexican immigrants, but Triple C has always identified himself as an American. In fact, Cejudo learned to speak Spanish way before he could speak fluent English.
In the lead-up to his UFC 227 bout against Demetrious Johnson in August 2018, Henry spoke about his linguistic skills and how it can help him grow into a bigger UFC star.
He added during an appearance on The MMA Hour, “Nothing against Demetrius. Nothing against Demetrious, but I think when you have a dominant champ for so many years, it’s almost like, they want a new storyline… They want a new storyline to tell, especially with somebody like me. Man, I’m bringing not just the Americans, but I’m bring all of Latin America with me. I speak Portuguese, I speak Spanish, I speak English.” (h/t via GiveMeSports)
Other than English, Spanish, and Portuguese, Henry Cejudo speaks rudimentary Russian as well. During his friendly feud with controversial influencer Hasbulla, Triple C issued a comedic threat to the Khabib Nurmagomedov ally in the Russian language.
A closer look at this hilarious face-off between Merab Dvalishvili and Henry Cejudo 😂
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) February 17, 2024
Henry: *speaks russian*
Merab: HEY IM GEORGIAN, I DONT SPEAK RUSSIAN.
Henry: You’re going to Saturday night
Merab: ILL TALK IN SPANISH, OKAY#UFC298
pic.twitter.com/y8UHotBwFH
The two-division champion did not hold back against Merab Dvalishvili and spoke in Russian to get under Merab’s skin during the heated face-off ahead of their UFC 298 fight.
It’s safe to say, that just like Cejudo’s skills inside the Octagon, his skills to pick up new languages seem unmatched as well.