Johny Hendricks becomes the second ex-UFC champion to announce retirement within a span of a week.
On Monday, former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans announced his retirement from MMA, after a 14-year professional run. Two days later, another ex-champion has followed suit.
Speaking to MMAJunkie Radio, Johny Hendricks made his declaration of retirement, stating he intends to focus on coaching varsity wrestling.
“I’m done. I’m retiring. I’m getting out of the MMA world,” Hendricks said. “I’ve been thinking about this long and hard for a while. I’m going to get back to my roots. I’m going to start coaching at All Saints (Episcopal School in Fort Worth, Texas).”
“I coached a little bit of high school last year, but I’m going to make the move over to All Saints and start doing those things.”
The 34-year-old Hendricks, who has gone 1-5 in his last six fights, said he came up with this decision during these past seven months of layoff and getting to spend time with his family.
“One of the things that’s nice is being home the last seven months, spending time with the kids, not worrying about what I needed to do,” Hendricks said. “I looked at my wife and said, ‘Do we really want to do this? I know I’m the one who has to do it, but do we want to do it? Do we want to go through the grind that I used to do, be gone for long periods of time, put my family second, do those kids of things?’ Right now, I can’t really say that.
“I made this decision two weeks ago, but I prayed about it and wanted to make sure I was going to be OK with it.”
Hendricks (18-8, with nine wins by stoppage), last saw action at UFC 217 in November, where he was defeated by Paulo Henrique Costa via second-round TKO.