When Henry Cejudo decided that he was going to drop his long-time coach Eric Albaraccin ahead of his UFC 298 title elimination fight against Merab Dvalishvili he didn’t opt to do it privately, but instead had the cameras rolling so it could be shown on the official ‘Countdown’ show for the event.
“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 that for this camp, dude, I’m getting rid of specific coaches – and that’s you included,” Cejudo told Abaraccin.
The 37-year-old former Olympic gold medalist then explained on the show why he’d cut the man who had been with him since before his MMA career even began.
While Albaraccin did his best to accept Cejudo’s decision gracefully, others were left bemused by Cejudo’s decision to hang his friend out to dry on camera, including ex-UFC fighter Darren Till.
“Nah doing that on camera is proper proper bad gear,” Till wrote on X. “Come on Henry do better than that mate. F**king not good that.”
“Sometimes you get too close to somebody and people just get too comfortable. … Right now, what I want to do in this fight camp is keep it strictly business.”
Henry Cejudo removes Coach Eric Albarracin on the latest episode of UFC Countdown: pic.twitter.com/SCAT4iMRxJ
— Oscar Willis (@oscarswillis) February 11, 2024
