‘When He Makes His Mind Up It’s Pretty Much Over’

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There’s been a lot of speculation as to whether Henry Cejudo is serious about walking away from the sport. Now his longtime head coach is giving his view of things.

Just how retired is UFC bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo?

That’s the question we’re stuck asking ourselves as the future of the bantamweight division hangs in the balance. On Cejudo’s side you have often public money negotiations going on with “Triple C” declaring his willingness to walk away should the UFC not meed his financial demands. He then made a pretty major overture about walking away from the sport after icing Dominick Cruz at UFC 249. But days later his manager Ali Abdelaziz was talking about a return by the end of the summer.

Well, if you ask Cejudo’s head coach Eric Albarracin, he thinks the retirement is legit.

“Yes, I do [think he’s done],” Albarracin said in a recent interview with 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. 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.”

Albarracin backs up Cejudo’s in-cage retirement reasoning about shifting his attention from work life to personal life.

“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’.”

We suppose the real defining factor is how much money the UFC would have to pony up to make Cejudo decide to step back in the cage. The UFC has already made it clear with their shutting down of a Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou bout that they’re not interested in splashing athletes with money right now, but Abdelaziz has earned his reputation as one of the hottest agents right now making deals come together for meaningful bouts.

Until we see what happens with Cejudo’s 135 pound strap, everything is up in the air. Will the UFC accept Henry’s retirement and book Petr Yan vs. somebody for the bantamweight title? If they do, we’d still put our money on Cejudo returning eventually. Just no time soon.