It probably won’t come as a shock to hear that the lead-up to UFC 270 was the single-most stressful lead-up to any fight of Eric Nicksick’s career.
The head coach of Xtreme Couture, Nicksick already faced the unenviable task of preparing Francis Ngannou for UFC 270’s title unification bout against Ciryl Gane in the midst of the UFC heavyweight champion’s ongoing dispute with the UFC brass. That alone would be enough to give any coach migraines. But then Ngannou suffered a injury in his right knee three weeks out from the most important fight of his life. After that, it’s safe to say Nicksick and the rest of Ngannou’s team didn’t get much sleep ahead of UFC 270.
Following Ngannou’s gutsy decision win over Gane, Nicksick appeared on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, where he revealed details of how the champ suffered an MCL tear and partial ACL tear. Nicksick claimed that the injury happened during a sparring session. The young heavyweight was brought in from outside to work with Ngannou. The first day went without incident, but disaster struck on Day 2.
“Francis was standing southpaw,” Nicksick explained on The MMA Hour. “Francis was kind of piecing him up a little bit, and I could tell the guy was getting anxious, so the guy shot a very, very low single. He wasn’t trying to do anything mean, it was simply him shooting a shot. But it was really low, and went onto Francis’ lead leg, which was his right leg being southpaw, and with the shin pads and the knee pad on, his knee kind of buckled funny. He cringed, grabbed it and moved around until he finished the round.
” We went to see the [UFC] PI the following day. He had MRI and it was a full MCL tear, and then he had damage to the ACL as well. So once we heard that, in my mind, I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know how you’re going to be able to move around.'”
Considering Gane’s footwork and abilities as technician, Ngannou’s team was instantly concerned. If the champion’s movement was compromised in any way by his injury, an already immense task at UFC 270 would only grow all the more daunting.
Nicksick said the team took things “one day at a time” in that early going, but as fight week drew nearer, he and those around Ngannou made their thoughts clear: Considering all that was going to be on the line at UFC 270, they believed Ngannou should pull out.
“Myself, [coach] Dewey [Cooper], [manager] Marquel [Martin], we all suggested that he should [withdraw] — that we didn’t think it was the right move to take this fight,” Nicksick said. We had the “come to Jesus” moment on Friday, before we went — I felt so emotional. I wanted him to understand, like, ‘Dude, this isn’t about us. This isn’t about a paycheck. It’s not about a paycheck. This is about your safety and your future career. And as your coach, I have to vocalize that. I can’t just sit here and not say something.’
“‘If you tell us, since you know you body, that you are able to fight and make this happen then I won’t mention it again. We’re moving full steam ahead and you will have my support no matter what. If something happens, it would make me feel bad about not being able to express my feelings. So we had that kind of moment. I wouldn’t say he was mad, by any means. I could just tell it was just kind of a downing moment.”
Ngannou was not deterred, though.
“The Baddest Man on the Planet” was still keen to fight Nicksick stated. He and the team have worked around the injury to prepare as much as possible. They revamped aspects of the Gane game plan and got Ngannou ready for a tough opponent.
Yet even still, things remained uncertain. Nicksick stated that Ngannou saw a doctor shortly after landing in California during fight week. The doctor recommended Ngannou not compete. However, Nicksick was certain that Ngannou didn’t want to reconsider his decision. Ngannou and the rest of Ngannou’s teams decided to accept the hand dealt to them, no matter how it turned out.
“[Ngannou] went into the doctor’s alone, and afterwards, I said, ‘What did he say?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, uh…'” Nicksick recalled.
” So I said “Alright bro. We’re both here because we know what’s going on. I also know the reason we are here. I trust your heart and believe in your story. This will make for a much better story. And I feel like we can pull this out. Let’s get started. Let’s do it.’ … And I never brought it up again. I never asked how he was doing. It was not something I looked at. I didn’t make it any other way. I didn’t even want to put it on his mind. I just wanted to focus on the fight.”
When asked if he believed the UFC was aware of Ngannou’s injury and whether UFC officials made any attempts to reschedule the fight, Nicksick responded matter-of-factly.
” They knew of it,” he stated. They knew it. They won’t do any favors for us, bro .”
In a separate interview, Ngannou stated that he was certain that Gane knew of his injury and that he had been informed by Ngannou.
As someone intimately familiar with how Las Vegas works, Nicksick added he knew exactly when the secret was out, because that’s when the betting lines started shifting hard in Gane’s favor.
“I think it’s going to happen inherently, especially when, to me, the UFC PI is kind of flawed by design,” Nicksick said. They’re an amazing facility. But the training room itself is glass, so you can be working out but you can also see Francis getting his knee taped, or getting treatment done, any athlete that’s in there. So if there’s seven or eight athletes that happen to be in there, and they’re seeing this man get taped up, or getting treatment done, or something worked on his knee, it’s bound to happen.
“It’s just flawed by design. It’s not them trying to be mean or anything like that, but there’s enough eyes in there and enough people in there, that eventually some stuff like that’s going to happen. We were all aware that he was wearing a knee brace and when so-and-so spots it they will tell three others. There was enough time between — it took me three weeks to figure it out. But I told my wife that — I was like, ‘I’m going to keep an eye on this betting line. Because once you see this line move, you’re going to know it’s out.'”
Through it all, though, Ngannou’s mind never changed.
He was a man on a mission, Nicksick said, and even when that decision looked as if it may have backfired as Ngannou fell behind in the early rounds of UFC 270, he never wavered.
” To be clear, man. He kind of calmed down me with his attitude, and the manner he was carrying him,” Nicksick stated about the champion’s approach during fight week.
“From what I saw out of him, he was just ice water the whole time.”
