Eric Nicksick continues to study the rule that within the MMA neighborhood, you’ll be able to say one thing, and it spirals into one thing fully totally different, and that’s what occurred together with his current feedback about Francis Ngannou.
Talking with Dwelling of Battle, in an interview carried out by one in all Nicksick’s Xtreme Couture teammates of almost 20 years, Ngannou’s head coach mentioned his fighter can be “one hundred pc” open to a UFC return down the road from a enterprise sense, as Ngannou doesn’t maintain any private grudges in opposition to the UFC. Nicksick additionally commented on the heavyweight division within the UFC, and that was questions of, ‘Is Ngannou returning? Might he battle Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall?,’ questions even requested to Dana White on the UFC 316 post-fight press convention.
Nicksick was requested to make clear these feedback, and he revealed he spoke to Ngannou as a few of the headlines had been popping out.
“It was form of a query of, with fandom, like, what situations can be nice. After all I’m all the time going to say Francis and Jon are the perfect competitors on the market,” Nicksick advised MMA Combating. “So Francis texts me like a type of like, only a clickbait [headlined article], and he’s like, ‘Bubba, did you say this? I’m like, ‘No.’
“It was like principally, ‘Francis Ngannou needs again within the UFC.’ That’s all. I’m like, bro, ‘What sort of non-f*cking journalistic publish was this, dude?’ It was loopy, however yeah, we had amusing about it as a result of Francis and I are literally on the telephone speaking about another stuff after which he’s like, ‘Oh shit, look, Jones simply tweeted,’ so we’re form of laughing about it.”
Nicksick says Ngannou has been in Las Vegas over the previous few weeks and coaching at Xtreme Couture. So far as what’s subsequent, Nicksick says he’s the unsuitable man to ask as he will get the data from Ngannou and his administration group after the ink dries on a contract signifying that step.
“[Francis is] simply again within the room and simply again to coaching with the fellas, actually, however nothing like enterprise clever,” Nicksick mentioned. “That’s why I believed it was form of humorous, it was virtually like I used to be giving freely some inside data. I don’t know shit. I’m the man that, like, legit, bro, it cracks me up. I’m just like the man from Zero Darkish Thirty after they simply say, ‘Hey, you’re going tonight.’ That’s after I get to search out out what we’re doing. They hold me in the dead of night on the whole lot. …
“I’m a fan of the game. That’s all. I’m a fan of Tom, I wish to see Tom get his shot. He’s earned it, he’s deserved it, however I believe the heavyweight division is in a tricky place proper now. It truly is. And that’s simply me speaking about what can revitalize this division that wants some assist, and there’s some choices on the market. I don’t know Francis’s contract cope with the PFL, I don’t know any of that stuff. That’s identical to me and also you simply chopping it up and I’m telling you the way I understand it and the way I see it, and if that choice is all the time out there, Francis is a businessman, that’s all I do know.”
A possible Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou battle would nonetheless be large in 2025, and it actually would have had large attraction when the UFC was attempting to place the bout collectively a number of years again.
Ultimately, Ngannou made the selection to go to PFL and vacate the UFC heavyweight title, then went on to compete in two large, multi-million greenback boxing matches in opposition to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. This previous October, Ngannou made his PFL debut the place he destroyed Renan Ferreira within the first spherical at Battle of the Giants.
Each MMA fan has their one battle that received away, and for Nicksick, not having the ability to get Jones vs. Ngannou can be a disgrace.
“I imply, for me personally, it’s received to be No. 1, however, Randy [Couture] and Fedor [Emelianenko] are up there, too,” Nicksick mentioned. “Clearly I used to be there for part of that, however yeah, positively, I believe John and Francis simply due to the nostalgia of two heavyweights clashing collectively. One being the best of all time, the opposite one clamoring to be in that place of one of many best heavyweights that ever do it.
“So, yeah, man, I believe it ranks up there fairly excessive.”
