{"id":421719,"date":"2026-01-18T18:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421719\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T18:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T18:50:09","slug":"matt-damon-recounts-awkward-encounter-with-former-ufc-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421719\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Damon recounts awkward encounter with former UFC champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As MMA continues to enter the mainstream, more and more UFC fighters are interacting with major Hollywood stars.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, that leads to cool crossovers that nobody ever excpected. Other times, things can get a little awkward. You know, like when Conor McGregor almost fought rapper MGK at some award show a few years back.<\/p>\n<p>One celebrity to recently cross paths with a UFC star was Matt Damon, who remains one of the busiest and most respected actors in the film industry.<\/p>\n<p>The fighter Damon came into contact with was Henry Cejudo. Cejudo, as MMA fans know, is a former UFC bantamweight and flyweight champ. He\u2019s also a former Olympic medalist in wrestling.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Cejudo\u2019s many accolades, Damon initially didn\u2019t recognize him when they crossed paths. In fact, it sounds like he sized him up, then totally disregarded him because he\u2019s \u201cvery small.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was only later that he realized who he was sharing space with.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Damon looks back on meeting with former UFC champ Henry Cejudo<\/p>\n<p>Damon recounted his brush with the former UFC champ during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. A normal podcast episode in a studio, not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/joe-rogan\/ufc-commentator-joe-rogan-nearly-filmed-podcast-on-top-of-egyptian-pyramid\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on top of an Egyptian pyramid<\/a>. See it below:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"de\">Matt Damon tells Henry Cejudo story. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/b4c0rPlb0F\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/b4c0rPlb0F<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jed I. Goodman \u00a9 (@jedigoodman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jedigoodman\/status\/2012450345436254337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis guy walks up and he\u2019s in, like, chinos, like khaki pants, and like a blue button-up kind of business shirt with spectacles,\u201d Damon told Rogan, who is a long-time UFC commentator. \u201cHe\u2019s very small and I kind of don\u2019t really regard him and I\u2019m still hearing this story and then Patrick goes, \u2018Matt, do you know Henry?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I turn and it\u2019s Henry Cejudo and I\u2019m like, this f*cking guy could wreck me right now. Absolutely f*cking destroy me and he is the guy that some dummy would try to pick on, you know what I mean? He\u2019s not carrying himself, he just is the thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time UFC fighters have failed to make impressions in mainstream circles recently. Brian Ortega and Mackenzie Dern recently appeared at the Golden Globes in a moment that left nearly everyone scratching their heads. Relive that discomfort <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/mackenzie-dern\/mma-fans-baffled-by-cringe-ufc-skit-at-golden-globes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As MMA continues to enter the mainstream, more and more UFC fighters are interacting with major Hollywood stars.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-421719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}