Johny Hendricks retires at age 34, will coach high school wrestling

Former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks apeared recently on MMAjunkie radio and announced his retirement from fighting.

I’m done. I’m retiring. I’m getting out of the MMA world, said Hendricks as transcribed by Matt Erickson for MMAjunkie. 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.

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. 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.

Even if you threw Georges St-Pierre at me, the world knows [Iwon]. Realistically, I’m satisfied unless they say, ‘Johny, here’s a million-dollar payday. Come fight this dude.’ You can’t turn that down. That would be stupid. But everything I set my mind to, I achieved it. That’s the gist of what I’m feeling at this moment and what I’ve been feeling the last month.

… I’ll call the UFC and tell them I’m done. I’ll call USADA and tell them I’m done. It’s never a honeymoon phase with me. My goal is to get [high school] wrestlers into national champions. I want to get wrestlers better than I was, better than I could ever be. … For me to do that, I have to put the past in the past and start moving forward.

I’ve been blessed with people around me to help me get there. What have I done with my life to be satisfied with where I’m at right now? As soon as I started doing that, I knew it was time for me to start doing something else. I’ve been very blessed to accomplish everything I’ve wanted to. Anything I’ve put my mind to, I’ve done it.

I remember getting on [MMAjunkie Radio] nine years ago saying, ‘I’m going to be the champ.’ Everybody was probably like, ‘Who’s this joker saying he’s going to do this?’ And right now, I know what I have to do to get back to where I want to be. I got the taste of the family life, I got the taste of the normal life, and right now … I’m completely satisfied with everything that’s going on. That’s why I wanted to give it to you first, the MMAjunkie world – is because you guys have been there from the very beginning.

Hendricks retires with a record of 18-8. The four-time All-American for OSU entered the UFC after just five fights. He was 16-2 when he defeated Robbie Lawler via Unanimous Decision at UFC 171 on March 15, 2014 for the vacant UFC welterweight championship. Nine months later he lost the belt in a controversial Split Decision to Lawler. Hendricks was no stranger to controversial Split Decisions – he lost one to division G.O.A.T. Georges St-Piere is a failed title attempt four months before winning the title.

Hendricks bounced back from the title loss with a win over Matt Brown at UFC 185, but has gone just 1-5 since, missing weight in three of them, across multiple weight divisions. ‘Big Rigg’ is just 34 with what will undoubtedly be a terrific coaching career ahead.