Henry Cejudo Says MMA Will Be World’s Top Sport in 10 to 15 Years — And Nobody Should Be Surprised

Sage Matthews here, bleary-eyed and convinced the culture is quietly combusting while we scroll. Of course Henry Cejudo told TMZ Sports that mixed martial arts will be the planet’s most popular sport within a decade to 15 years. Why would this not be happening now, when we have billion-dollar streaming deals and pay-per-view spectacles plugging into the vacuum where traditional sports falter?

Henry Cejudo, the 38-year-old former two-division champion and soon-to-be Hall of Famer, sat down with Babcock on the TMZ Sports television show and made a bold, almost smug prediction. Reacting to the UFC’s gargantuan $7.7 billion media rights agreement with Paramount, Cejudo admitted he never imagined MMA would rise this high, then doubled down by forecasting that MMA will overtake every other sport globally in the next 10 to 15 years. He did not hedge. He did not apologize. He simply predicted the inevitable.

To be fair, the trajectory is blunt and well-documented. The UFC began in 1993 and was treated like a dangerous sideshow. By 2001 it was struggling until Dana White and the Fertitta brothers bought it for $2 million. Fast forward to mid-2016 and WME sank over $4 billion into the promotion. Now, the organization secures a nearly $8 billion media deal, and suddenly the thing we once banned in many jurisdictions is being packaged as prime, mainstream entertainment. If that does not make you uneasy, you are not paying attention.

Cejudo backed up his prophecy by pointing to the league’s explosive event calendar and the kind of headline matchups that drive obsession. UFC 319, coming with a likely Fight of the Year candidate pitting middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis against unbeaten contender Khamzat Chimaev, is the kind of card that keeps the engines humming and paywalls profitable. These are the nights millions tune in, social feeds light up, and the sponsors salivate. That is how a niche becomes a global colossus.

The business facts are not opinion. They are public records and transaction history. The Fertitta acquisition of the UFC, the WME sale, and the most recent Paramount deal are milestones that illustrate the sport’s entry into the mainstream financial stratosphere. Couple that with star-making fights and viral personalities and you have a growth machine that looks unstoppable until it is not.

And yet let us not pretend the ascent is free of contradictions. Regulation battles, fighter pay controversies, and the ever-present concern about safety and long-term health haunt the narrative. The same sport that sells out arenas and commands massive streaming contracts has a history of being banned or heavily restricted in certain countries. Public acceptance can flip. Corporate money does not guarantee public trust. But Cejudo’s point is straightforward: the momentum is overwhelming and the infrastructure for global domination is in place.

So what now? Expect more big-money deals, more crossover celebrities, more championship nights that clog your feed, and more earnest predictions that MMA will swallow the sports world. Will it actually eclipse football, soccer, or basketball globally? Possibly, if the trends continue and no major scandal derails the machine. If you are tired of long seasons and polite competition, perhaps you prefer the immediacy of two athletes finding out who is better inside a cage while networks count the cash.

In short, Henry Cejudo made a stark forecast rooted in history and financial reality. He also teased fight analysis of Du Plessis versus Chimaev and hinted about his own future in the Octagon. That is the sound of a market confident enough to absorb predictions and even leverage them into promotional oxygen. Keep your popcorn handy and your skepticism intact.

Anyway, bookmark this sentiment for the inevitable “I told you so” headline when the next multi-billion-dollar deal drops. At this point, should we even pretend to be surprised?

Sources: Celebrity Storm and TMZ, UFC press reports, public sale records
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed