The “King of Cringe” pulled a fast one on the MMA community.
Henry Cejudo is just days away from his return to the octagon at UFC 298 to take on Merab Dvalishvili at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. In his first fight since a split decision loss to Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight title at UFC 288, Cejudo and his longtime coach Eric Albarracin decided it was time to pull off a prank.
On the UFC’s “Countdown” preview show for the pay-per-view event, Cejudo sat Albarracin down to bluntly deliver the news that he was kicking his coach to the curb for his return bout.
It was believable enough, considering Cejudo is likely on the tail end of his career at 37, and has openly contemplated retirement (again). Not to mention, a fighter deciding to change coaches and camps is a thing that does happen in the sport.
“Sometimes you get too close to somebody and people just get too comfortable,” Cejudo said. “Right now, what I want to do in this fight camp is keep it strictly business.”
It was a scene that had the MMA community up in arms for a few days. Many reacted to Cejudo’s “firing” of his coach, calling the former two-division champ everything under the sun from distasteful to an outright “piece of sh*t,” as featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski put it. It even led to Dvalishvili jokingly hiring Albarracin.
As it turns out, the “King of Cringe” and his loyal coach bamboozled everyone.
“Bill Belichick, Tom Brady. Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan. Come on, do you think they would ever break up? Come on, man.” Albarracin said while standing next to Cejudo at the fighter hotel in a video posted to Instagram.
“Just so you guys know, this is the greatest combat coach of all time,” Cejudo said with his arm wrapped around Albarracin. “This is an unbreakable bond.”
The video concluded with Cejudo walking off pointing to cameras and saying, “Got ’em! Got ’em!”
Volkanovski caught wind of the news as the two were signing event posters, and was relieved to hear Cejudo was pranking everyone.
“No way he’s done that, I said that,” Volkanovski said in a video posted to Cejudo’s Instagram Stories. “But if he did, what a piece of sh*t.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 298.
