“He Always Wanted To Start A Family”-Coach Gives An Update On Henry Cejudo’s Return

As we all know Henry Cejudo has announced his retirement from the sport. Though we all aren’t fond of this step, there is one man who sees the good in it. Henry Cejudo’s head coach “Captain” Eric Albarracin believes that the retirement announcement was legitimate and Cejudo isn’t the kind to change his mind so easily.

Henry Cejudo’s announcement came as a shock to everyone. After accomplishing one of the greatest victories of his career, he took to the mic and announced his retirement. He had successfully defeated Dominick Cruz at UFC 249, and opted to hang hi gloves post this fight.

Speaking with MMA Junkie, his head coach said, “Yes, I do [think he’s done],” Albarracin told MMA Fighting. “A lot of people keep going back to the Olympics. When he retired from the Olympics, nobody believed he was going to do that either. Everybody thought he was going to be the next two or three-time Olympic champion. Possibly four because he was the youngest ever and he had the time to win four. The next day, he shut it down. He said ‘I’m retiring.’ I have seen this before and I know when he makes his mind up it’s pretty much over.”

When Cejudo claimed gold at the 2008 Olympics he was the youngest ever to do so. He announced his retirement then and though he came back for the 2012 Olympics, he came up short in his bid to represent the United States that year.

There is a difference says the head coach

Pointing out the difference between both these cases, Albarracin said, “Everybody brings up 2012. But the thing is Henry was 21 back then. He’s 33 now. He can’t wait four years and then say ‘I’m back.’ It doesn’t work that way in MMA. And Henry wants to start a family. He’s always wanted to start a family and I think in his mind he always had the belief that he wanted to be retired to start that family. If indeed he does start that family, that’s always been his dream besides being ‘Triple C’.”

While many still think Cejudo has done this in hopes of receiving a better contract from the UFC, he’s been grinding and competing at the highest level for over 15 years now and that can take a toll on your body.

His coach said he puts every ounce of himself into training and there is hardly any time for fun at his training camps. When it comes to Henry Cejudo, laser-like focus comes tagged along no question asked. He said, “I think it was his Olympic focus that really, it takes away from the fight for Henry. He reminds me when [Georges St-Pierre] was retiring because he takes it too seriously. But that’s also what makes Henry great. Training camp was never fun for Henry, it was always business with a laser-like Olympic focus. I think that wears on him when you’re No. 1 since you’re 14 years old.”

Henry Cejudo caught everyone off guard

Albarracin said he too didn’t know Cejudo was going to make the announcement and said it definitely caught him off guard. “I thought he was going to get the fourth title and we were going to call him C4,” Albarracin said. “I was telling him in the cage ‘call him out, call out [Alexander] Volkanovski, call out [Jose] Aldo.’ We were talking about that the week of the fight. I think even the day of the fight we were talking about who he was going to call out. We had all these things planned out but then boom, he said he’s done. Now it’s time for him to ride off into the sunset as the greatest combat athlete of all time. There will never be another ‘Triple C.’ He’ll be the only one to ever do it.”

Ending this his coach said it’s not a bad decision of this is what he truly wants. He said he wants to go out at the top and he is. “This is literally his Barry Sanders moment,” Albarracin said. “He’s going out at the peak of his athletic ability. Just fighting mentality as well. I’ve never seen him, such warrior, like. He’s always been a competitor and that’s what makes Henry different than most people is his Olympic focus and his competitiveness. I wasn’t sure if he was going to retire. I didn’t think he was going to retire, I’ll tell you that. This is him at his best.”

What do you think? Will Cejudo make a return?