Henry Cejudo came under fire ahead of his UFC 298 bout against Merab Dvalishvili as he appeared to fire his long-time coach, Eric Albarracin, on UFC Countdown. The No.3-ranked bantamweight took to Instagram on Tuesday to reveal that the firing was just a prank.
'Triple C' shared a video of the two together, captioning the post:
"GOT’EM 🫵🏻 JORDAN/ JACKSON BRADY/ BELICHICK CEJUDO/ ALBARRACIN We started this together, we’ll finish it together. 👊🏻 THE KING OF CRINGE IS BACK 👑"
Check out Henry Cejudo's Instagram post below:
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Fans shared a variety of reactions to the news. @CombatHaven labeled the move as lame:
"Lame as hell lmao"
@watch_hoop believes that the public backlash led Cejudo to bring Albarracin back:
"His coach gotta think if Henry didn’t get hate for firing him he wouldn’t have been brought back. Really weird"
@UfcWacko predicted that the former double champ will be dealing with plenty of pressure from Dvalishvili:
"Cejudo fake firing his coach while he’s going to have to defend 35 takedowns from @MerabDvalishvil in 96 hours 🤒"
@BlaineHenryTFL pointed out that neither Tom Brady nor Michael Jordan finished their career with their legendary coaches:
"Brady went to the Bucs without Bull. Jordan went to the White Sox and Wizards without Phil."
@combat_insider noted that Albarracin stated he will be in the front row at UFC 298:
"Well he literally said he will be sitting front row, so he won’t be in the corner so idk what he means by sike"
@Eon1Eno thought there might be more to the prank:
"I knew it was fake. I thought it was some unrelated publicity stunt or something. Some nft, or merch launch. This was completely aimless though. But whatever."
@eightyfourpate claimed it is impossible to be a fan of Cejudo:
"yeah its just impossible to be a fan of this guy"
@ComedicSavagery believes 'Triple C' is not a good marketer:
"pound for pound worst marketer in the fight game?"
What did Henry Cejudo say to Eric Albarracin?
Henry Cejudo shocked fans when he seemingly fired Eric Albarracin on UFC 298 Countdown. Speaking to his long-time coach, 'Triple C' stated:
"You were with me for my last Olympic trials [and] you've been there for me but as of right now, I just want to let you know, man, that for this camp, dude, I'm getting rid of specific coaches, man. That's you included, dude."
Check out Henry Cejudo's comments to Eric Albarracin below:
He cited his closeness to Albarracin and the comfortability between the two, as his reasons for the move. Cejudo did, however, sing the praises of his long-time coach, referring to him as the greatest coach in combat sports history.