“You can’t do this behind closed doors?” - UFC legend praises Eric Albarracin for “positively handing” being fired on Embedded episode
Henry Cejudo publically removed Eric Albarracin as his head coach and a prolific knockout artist seems perturbed by that.
The former two-division UFC champion readies to fight this Saturday, and Cejudo competes against Merab Dvalishvili. He was shown ousting Albarracin from his position during the countdown special for UFC 298, and several in the MMA community seem unhappy with Cejudo's methodology.
One of these fighters is Matt Brown. Speaking to Damon Martin of MMA Fighting on the latest installment of The Fighter vs. The Writer, Brown said:
“The way that Eric handled it, it seemed like it must have been pre-planned. Because I know if someone did that to me, I’d be like, ‘What b****, you can’t do this behind closed doors? What the f***?’ But he handled it very well and was very positive about it."
“That made me think they probably planned this out. They got us talking about it right now. What their assumed plan was seemed to have worked.”
Check out Brown's commentary on the dissolving of Albarracin-Cejudo below:
Eric Albarracin and the fighters he's associated with
Eric Albarracin has been involved with Henry Cejudo's career for over a decade. However, the head coach's involvement has extended to several high-profile fighters over the years.
Despite the Cejudo incident, 'Captain' Eric will still be involved at UFC 298 as he is also the head coach of Paulo Costa. The New York native will be cornering his charge in his Robert Whittaker fight on pay-per-view this weekend.
The 47-year-old has also coached Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull, former Bellator champion Patricky Pitbull, former UFC Flyweight Champion Deiveson Figueiredo, and 'The Korean Zombie' Chan Sung Jung. Albarracin has also played a role in UFC title camps with Cejudo alongside the likes of champions Zhang Weili, Jiří Prochazka, and Jon Jones as they prepared for key contests.
Albarracin will be a prevalent figure this weekend, both in terms of who he will be cornering and who he won't be cornering as well.