Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick spoke recently with Damon Martin for MMA Fighting, about his charge Francis Ngannous’s fight in the main event of UFC 260 on Saturday night vs. heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. It’s a rematch.
Every night. I watch it. It’s creepy as can be but I watch it every night, said Ngannou’s head coach of the first fight. It’s definitely overdoing it. It’s not healthy. I should turn it off, I will definitely admit but it’s just something that it’s almost been a valued tradition now. My wife is going to be over that pretty soon, too. I plug it on and watch it quite a bit. I just think it’s important to put the time in, especially giving the guy I consider the greatest to ever do it in Stipe Miocic.”
I think [Ngannou] understands at this level, the title level, you’re not going to just cut through everybody like they’re soft butter. There are guys out there who are going to look to outsmart you. They’re going to have a better fight IQ. His approach to that fight [against Stipe], in a lot of ways and he’ll tell you this by his own admission, he thought he was going to just walk in there, knock him out and take the belt. Unfortunately, you’re fighting Stipe Miocic.
Sometimes you need those Stipe Miocic ass whoopings and the Derrick Lewis fights to really make you understand who and what you are but also to make you understand what you’re capable of overcoming. All those things are the maturations of this man’s career but when you boil it down and look at everything this guy’s been through, this is kind of one of those parallel storylines for what he’s gone through in his life.
The rejections, how long it’s taken to actually get here, to get to Europe, to travel across Africa, he was told no or rejected many times but it’s his perseverance or his resiliency that kind of makes him who he is. It wouldn’t have right if he didn’t have a hiccup to get there.
Ngannou has been faulted for his endurance, unnecessary in Ngannou’s case against the top 10, in all likelihood very necessary against the champ.
We sat and talked about that after JDS, just kind of conquering those demons if you will of the areas of our game that I wouldn’t necessarily say we weren’t good at — I like the use the term that we weren’t good at yet, said Nicksick. Those are the things we really wanted to center our focus on and make sure we checked all the boxes.”
The most important part of MMA is wrestling, and coach Nicksick says that, too, has received their undivided attention.
We had to implement [wrestling] in every practice that we do, revealed Nicksick. So it’s not like one practice you’re sparring or hitting pads. It’s MMA. So every practice you have to focus on defending a takedown. Furthermore, you have to focus on taking guys down yourself. You have to have offensive wrestling just as important as your defensive wrestling.”
We can talk about it we’re blue in the face but you have to prove it. You have to show people. Everybody is going to have their doubts until you’re able to implement it.
UG, how do you think the main event goes on Saturday night?
