Johny HendricksHendricks made his plans known in an interview on MMAJunkie Radio Wednesday.
"I'm done," said the former Oklahoma State wrestling champ and MMA pro for a decade. "I'm retiring. I'm getting out of the MMA world.
"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."
Hendricks said being away from training for a fight for more than a half-year helped lead to his decision.
"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 kinds 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."
The 34-year-old known as "Bigg Rigg" because "he hit like a Mack truck" promises his retirement won't be one of those where he could be drawn back to the Octagon by an especially tough rival or a supersized payday.
"Even if you threw Georges St-Pierre at me, the world knows (I beat him)," Hendricks said.
"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 (United States Anti-Doping Agency) 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."
Hendricks launched his pro MMA career in Sept. 2007… and had his first fight in the UFC in May 2010. In his long career in the Octagon, the Oklahoma native compiled an 18-8 overall record, with nine straight wins right from the start.
In March 2014, Hendricks was crowned UFC welterweight (170-pound) champ after defeating Robbie Lawler at UFC 171 in Dallas. He lost that title in rematch in December.
Hendricks' last six fights have resulted in five losses. His last appearance saw him suffer a second-round TKO loss to Paulo Costa at UFC 217 in November 2017.
Prior to putting on the gloves and fight trunks, Hendricks was a formidable force in amateur wrestling. He was a three-time Oklahoma state champ at Edmond Memorial High School just outside Oklahoma City, compiling a 101-5 record. Hendricks then headed up I-35 to Oklahoma State, where he won two Big 12 and NCAA titles in 2005 and 2006.
The next gig for "Bigg Rigg" will be coaching at All Saints Episcopal School, a K-12 school with approximately 1,200 students in suburban Fort Worth, Texas.
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