Eric Nicksick Talks Francis Ngannou, Sean Strickland, Tricks For Fighting At UFC APEX | The MMA Hour

Eric Nicksick discusses the fallout from Francis Ngannou’s knockout loss to Anthony Joshua, Ngannou’s decision to switch stances, how difficult it was afterward, Sean Strickland and Chris Curtis’ latest losses, Ngannou’s next step, adjustments Ngannou will have to make for his MMA return, Strickland not getting an immediate UFC title rematch, what went wrong against Dricus du Plessis, tricks for fighting at the UFC APEX, biggest UFC 300 questions, and more.
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[@Ruminator]

The story about the bullied kid is absolutely unbelievable. He's literally held court with elite martial artists. Nicksick and his crew are incredible. I love what humans are capable of. It's beautiful.

[@shifty277]

I know right? That story was emotional! Especially the part where he said the mother was thanking him so much for the help and support and taking the kid on the journey and positive support. The key word for that gym was community

[@paulhancock]

Just an awesome interview. Nicksick never disappoints with the insights and wisdom.

[@timslee0618]

Apparently, Eric Nicksick started off as a BJJ student at Xtreme Couture before becoming one of the coaches there.

[@westsidera97]

Here before the audio 😅

[@westsidera97]

The Audio made it

[@Ruminator]

Two total geniuses on that couch. Wow.

[@Sim0n98]

DJ’s pit stains are undefeated

[@jonoharper4729]

Nicksick has a serious weave going on....he used to be almost bald. Him and franny got a "2 for 1" deal in Turkey

[@tuffneggah]

ariel def needs to go gza

[@ZenithAngel]

🙌

[@MiLAgRo89117]

Eric is just a genius! considering that he has never competed in a cage..

[@charliec2966]

GENIUS. JUST REPEATING COACHING 101 CLICHES. PROB A GOOD MOTIVATOR. JUST NOT A GENIUS. HIS FIGHTERS ARE 1-6 IN THEIR LAST 7.

[@MiLAgRo89117]

@@charliec2966 he became coach of the year 2023 for repeating cliches? 🤣

[@D1mMak]

His boy got flatlined. It's all about contract negotiations. There was no Jake Paul like knockout clauses in the Joshua fight. Ngannou got dealt with the proper way.

[@Rikiko722]

I feel like Mighty Mouse was a bit trolly in his take on Francis, which I didn't really expect from him because he's not normally like that. It's fair enough to make the argument that Joshua may have a good chance against Francis in MMA, but he did seem to enjoy himself quite a bit making it and then quickly leaving.

[@wheelmanstan]

ddp did everything he could to win, sean didn't attempt to use all his tools, it's pretty clear if he fought a little differently he'd have beaten ddp, just more teep would have won it for him, but he could have also wrestled, ask alex about sean's ground game, alex is a huge fan and called sean a compete fighter with a very special jab, would be nice to see sean wrestle and kick costa, optics is huge, ddp was literally crawling after that fight

[@zinidinerahman4168]

at one point Sean did level change and clinch up with DDP to attempt a takedown I can only assume but then Dricus used that situation to take down Sean instead because he's got the strength advantage. I think Sean not wrestling with DDP was fine because Dricus would've most likely out muscled his way out if he ever got down. It's infuriating that Sean basically abandoned the teep kick after round 1 because I cant help but feel like that would've been absolutely huge to gassing out DDP in the later rounds..

[@wheelmanstan]

@@zinidinerahman4168 sean's stubbornness holds him back, he just wants to stand and bang with those fists, he makes it much harder for himself, adding in a kick just here and there disrupts his opponent, he really needs to open that tool box up, especially to help out his own optics, when he encounters someone his fists aren't working well enough on then he needs to adapt another game plan, he's been in the game for a very long time, likely better than ddp on the ground, black belt in bjj, so in those later rounds I'd give him the advantage on the ground

[@zinidinerahman4168]

@@wheelmanstan Everyone who says he's a great wrestler trained with him before he had the motorcycle accident. I remember Kelvin Gastelum going as far to saying that Sean's actually better on the ground then he is standing up. However, his knee getting messed up from that accident has got to be the reason why he avoids wrestling like its the plague lol. He's got a fantastic team behind him though and I hope he continues to win fights in the future including the next one against Costa 🤞

[@wheelmanstan]

@@zinidinerahman4168 i don't think it's his knee, I think they fixed that, it's his quad, that never got fixed properly as it healed on its own, like his dead toe..probably just slightly limited in mobility, but he still trains his wrestling and with larger guys and rolling really well

[@zinidinerahman4168]

@@wheelmanstan Dana just announced at the ufc 300 post fight press conference that Strickland v Costa will be a 5 round co main. Realistically Sean should have this win in the bag now but we'll find out

[@user-xq5zm3mf9m]

No interested in ngannou after last big ko

[@jonasjorgensen8759]

His Hair transplant looks amazing. Anyone remember where him n francis did theirs?

[@beedebawng2556]

Turkey

[@T0mOD]

Hair transplant looking veerrreryy good for Eric, crazyy

[@charliec2966]

NICKSICK JUST REPEATS COACHING 101 CLICHES. ALL KZbin COMPILATION QUOTES. GOOD MOTIVATOR, JUST NEVER FOUGHT. SO HES NOT AN X'S & O'S GUY.

[@beedebawng2556]

I honestly feel like there was foul play involved with that Francis fight. I could be wrong, but it all seems fishy.

[@mrpk646]

I'll help you out. Francis is essentially a basic novice boxer with a big size/strength/power/durability advantage against his opponents in MMA. MMA fighters have poor boxing. Joshua is a gold medalist and 2x HW champion in his prime, the same size as ngannou but 16 or so years of honing his craft. Their team saw holes in ngannou technically and prepared properly. Fury was also landing right hands a lot, however he is not a known puncher he's a boxer. Francis thought he was invincible, changed southpaw and got hurt immediately. As the coach said, a lot of guys like using both stances but have the defense in the alt stance. This was the case with ngannou. Joshua just did 24 rounds with the best HW southpaw on the planet, which also means 2 training camps with lots of southpaw sparring. Joshua also won his 1st world title Vs a southpaw and stopped him in 2 with the pull counter. Very very similar fight to the ngannou fight Tbh. Nothing fishy about it. 1st knockdown was a very accurate right hand on the chin. Poor awareness by ngannou. 2nd knockdown was ngannou throwing a lazy jab, and not being aware of the danger. Joshua pull counters him and dropped him very heavy. That was instant concussion. Francis was done. He got up and got flatlined. Ref should have stopped it after the 2nd knockdown.

[@HS-oh8xh]

@@mrpk646 nailed it

[@petboy5839]

Very smart comment. Watch Francis interview with Ariel after the fight. He said he was at the arena at 10:30 pm for an 3 am fight. Joshua got there like 1 or after 1 am for the fight at 3 am. That's like 4 and a half hours of wait time. Not only that they were having him going places and waiting for a long time to the annoyance of Dewey Cooper who said it's a trick they do to get you tired. Francis said he himself was surprised he was falling down from Joshua punches which didn't even hurt. People said it was a fake fight because one of the punches Francis fell down from didn't even look like it land. Might have been a graze. Francis falling down from a graze. Give me a break.

[@petboy5839]

And Francis did mention he was falling asleep in the locker room while warming up the fight. Sleep deprivation will do you in. If your body doesn't get enough sleep you won't be able to do things coherently

[@puntsize]

all of these people getting new hairlines. Just wait for Roman Dolidze!

[@Quizmstr]

Ddp won 3 rounds dude stop lying 😂