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Inside UFC 303: Coach’s Perspective on Dan Ige’s Pivotal Fight

On June 30, Eric Nicksick knew that he would be heading to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas but he didn’t realize that Dan Ige would be coming with him. UFC 303 produced one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the promotion as Ige agreed to step in and face Diego Lopes […]

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On June 30, Eric Nicksick knew that he would be heading to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas but he didn’t realize that Dan Ige would be coming with him.

UFC 303 produced one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the promotion as Ige agreed to step in and face Diego Lopes in the co-main event all within the space of a few hours.

After receiving the call from his fighter, Nicksick (who was already cornering on the card), immediately got to work in order to make this happen.

He picked up his fighter’s cup from Xtreme Couture and under Ige’s instructions, assembled a corner on short notice.

Nicksick quickly arranged to meet with both Kai Kamaka III and Sean Strickland who he knew were in Vegas, breaking up the former middleweight champion’s lunch date with his girlfriend.

All of these details and more recently came out when he gave his side to this incredible story.

Eric Nicksick Says Dan Ige Is Always Looking And Staying Ready For Opportunities Like This

During his appearance on the Jaxxon Podcast, Nicksick detailed what the crazy turnaround of UFC 303 looked like from his perspective.

He also revealed that taking fights on short notice to try and save the card is something that Ige regularly has his eye on in case something exactly like this happens.

With him being in shape and training out of Las Vegas, he was the perfect fighter to step in for Brian Ortega who withdrew due to illness.

“Here’s the thing about Dan. Every card, he’ll look at the landscape of the division or the card, for example, and be like, ‘hey this dude at 55, there’s these two fights at 45, whatever. Take a peek at it, let me know if something comes up short notice, I’m always down to take these types of fights, especially if the juice is worth the squeeze’ and in this particular situation, it was and he jumped on it man.”

Nicksick also said that though they didn’t get the win, he’s glad that Ige was able to pull this off because it shows what’s possible if you’re prepared.

He went from any old Saturday to fighting in the co-main event of International Fight Week all because he was ready to stick his hand up when the UFC called and said they needed a guy.

“That’s what makes me the most proud about the situation is that anytime there’s an opportunity like that, our team can pick up the phone and answer the call. Chris Curtis, Sean Strickland, Roman Dolidze, Dan Ige, you know, and I think it sets a precedence amongst the rest of the team to know what is possible if you’re f****** prepared and you’re ready to go and you’re doing all the right things day in and day out, even if you’re outside of camp. Those opportunities come once in a lifetime and are you willing to open the door when that door knocks.”

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Francis Ngannou’s Coach Details Tom Aspinall Collaboration In Preparation For Renan Ferreira Fight

To prepare for his long awaited MMA return, Francis Ngannou is doing his training camp out in Paris before October 19. Any heavyweight in the sport will tell you that one of the biggest problems that they encounter is finding suitable training partners to work with. This is even more true when you’re preparing to […]

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To prepare for his long awaited MMA return, Francis Ngannou is doing his training camp out in Paris before October 19.

Any heavyweight in the sport will tell you that one of the biggest problems that they encounter is finding suitable training partners to work with.

This is even more true when you’re preparing to fight a 6’8″ opponent in Renan Ferreira.

Team Ngannou’s problem could have been temporarily solved this week thanks to the UFC arriving in Paris for Saturday night’s event at the Accor Arena.

Ngannou’s coach, Eric Nicksick, has built a strong relationship with another of the world’s best heavyweights – whom he was hoping to cross paths with in the French capital.

Eric Nicksick Says He Would’ve Loved To Connect Ngannou & Aspinall

In a recent interview with ESPN MMA, Nicksick said that he hoped to connect Ngannou with the interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall this week.

Unfortunately, Aspinall wasn’t making the trip over for the fights on Saturday but the Xtreme Couture coach still thinks it could happen at some stage.

With both men being right at the top of their weight class in different promotions, the sparring videos alone would be PPV-worthy.

He said that the short distance between England and France means that Aspinall may be able to join their camp before they leave for Saudi Arabia.

Nicksick did say that though the Brit isn’t in town, he did offer to help out in a different way, by giving them a list of names who may be of use as sparring partners to mimic Ferreira.

“I was hoping that he’d [Aspinall] be out here and we’d get some training in and not saying it won’t happen, maybe it can before we get out of here because he’s like an hour flight away. He’s not too far away but he was gracious enough to send me some names of his training partners and guys that we could use and try to bring out here to help out Francis but he was all about it man and Tom’s been a great friend and a great guy to have in the circle.”

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Sean Strickland’s Coach Points Out Weakness In Dricus Du Plessis Ahead Of Potential Rematch: ‘If The Wrestling Does Happen…’

Sean Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick has already spoken about how a rematch with Dricus Du Plessis won’t need big changes from them. Their first encounter at UFC 297 where Du Plessis came away with a split decision to become the middleweight champion, was a closely contested affair over five rounds. Making small adjustments before running […]

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Sean Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick has already spoken about how a rematch with Dricus Du Plessis won’t need big changes from them.

Their first encounter at UFC 297 where Du Plessis came away with a split decision to become the middleweight champion, was a closely contested affair over five rounds.

Making small adjustments before running it back will be key because, as we saw in the first fight, there isn’t much to separate these two.

The fight was predominantly a striking exchange between them but the occasional takedown attempts from Du Plessis opened up some moments that they could capitalize on in the rematch, in Nicksick’s opinion.

Eric Nicksick Says Sean Strickland Can Use Transitional Grappling Against Dricus Du Plessis

Nicksick knows better than to expect his fighter to go out there in a title fight and start shooting for takedowns.

Strickland’s style is very set in its ways and we saw that when he faced elite strikers in Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya, and didn’t once try to take the fight to the ground.

Where Nicksick feels they can have success after watching the first fight play out is in the transitions after Du Plessis attempts takedowns.

The Xtreme Couture head coach was able to take lessons from UFC 297 and the time he cornered Brad Tavares against “Stillknocks”, to find this one area.

“The one thing I will bring up that I feel like Sean doesn’t give himself enough credit for – so when Dricus took Sean down, there was some transitional grappling, things that I want to see Sean implement a little bit more. Sean never was really held down, we were never like taken down and laid on our back but there, Sean’s really good at hitting the switch and Sean’s really good at counterbalancing and taking the back to where I think Sean could implement a little ground and pound and top pressure himself.

“Anecdotally looking back at what Brad did, when Brad fought Dricus, Brad got on top and Brad rode Dricus all the first round so I think Dricus is a very good topside grappler, I don’t think he’s that great off his back so I’m not saying we need to go and initiate the wrestling but if the wrestling does happen, I think Sean can reverse those positions and get on top and create some havoc up there.”

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Francis Ngannou’s Coach On UFC Deleting His Legacy: ‘It Takes Somebody Of Izzy’s Stature…’

Francis Ngannou is set to really begin the next chapter of his MMA career when he makes his long-awaited PFL debut against Renan Ferreira on October 19. Despite parting ways with the UFC in January of 2023, the former UFC heavyweight champion has been competing in boxing before taking some time off after tragically losing […]

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Francis Ngannou is set to really begin the next chapter of his MMA career when he makes his long-awaited PFL debut against Renan Ferreira on October 19.

Despite parting ways with the UFC in January of 2023, the former UFC heavyweight champion has been competing in boxing before taking some time off after tragically losing his son earlier this year.

In the meantime, his former home has done a few things that rubbed both Ngannou and his supporters the wrong way by not acknowledging what he achieved in the promotion.

One particular stat shown in August of last year listed Tafon Nchukwi as the first Cameroonian fighter to ever compete in the UFC, which was quickly corrected by Ngannou on social media.

Not only had they erased Ngannou on this occasion, they had also jumped past Thierry Sokoudjou who “The Predator” gave props to.

Eric Nicksick Says He Doesn’t Understand UFC’s Stance On Francis Ngannou

This lack of acknowledgment for Ngannou was brought up once again by Israel Adesanya during his media day interviews ahead of UFC 305.

Ngannou’s coach Eric Nicksick spoke about the impact that actions like this from “The Last Stylebender” have during a recent interview with Submission Radio.

He gave his opinion on Ngannou not being celebrated for his time in the UFC, stating that he can’t understand this way of handling the situation even if it did end on less than stellar terms.

“It just doesn’t make any sense. I think it’s like if you had this break-up but you still learn something or you still gained something from that relationship and I think it takes somebody of Izzy’s stature and nobility of like he cares so much about Francis that he has a platform and he speaks up about it. Good on Izzy for seeing these injustices and speaking up on it. It’s just silly. It just actually, I think it brings more light and more negative connotation to the situation.

“Had they just been like, ‘Oh hey man, you know, he was a great champion for us while he was here.’ You don’t have to promote the guy but when you’re doing a stat that said the first Cameroonian fighter in UFC history, like wait a minute, you had a couple guys that were in there. It is what it is man, it’s their promotion, it’s their business what they decide to do. I just would never really understand the purpose or reason why behind it.”

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Sean Strickland’s Coach Expands On Strategy For Dricus Du Plessis Rematch: ‘It’s Gonna Be To The Death!’

The next middleweight title fight would appear to be a rematch of what fight fans saw take place over five rounds in the main event of UFC 297. Dricus Du Plessis won a split decision on that night in January to take the belt from Sean Strickland, following a back-and-forth encounter. After Strickland was able […]

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The next middleweight title fight would appear to be a rematch of what fight fans saw take place over five rounds in the main event of UFC 297.

Dricus Du Plessis won a split decision on that night in January to take the belt from Sean Strickland, following a back-and-forth encounter.

After Strickland was able to bounce back with a win over Paulo Costa and Du Plessis defended the title against Israel Adesanya this past weekend, a rematch is on the cards.

Given how close it was the first time around, there likely isn’t going to be a big change made by either man that will drastically change the way this one plays out – and that’s how Strickland’s head coach sees it.

Eric Nicksick Says He Expects A Similar Fight With Small ‘Chess Match’ Adjustments

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Eric Nicksick spoke about his expectations for preparing Strickland to face Du Plessis for a second time.

He spoke about how the key to this fight will be focusing on small adjustments because they wouldn’t need to do much different to have won the first encounter.

“There are some things and I’ve said them publicly in the past but there are definitely some things that we went away from that would have helped negate that forward pressure and I still firmly believe had we stayed on those things, we would have won that fight and he didn’t do those things, Sean did not do those things. So, we need to get back to some small little changes.

“There’s some things on the ground that I think we can accomplish as well that I would like to revisit with Sean and yeah. I mean it wasn’t this crazy, crazy, ‘Oh dude, we got our a** kicked’. There was just some small little things but now the fun part is the chess match. What are they going to do to go back and make those adjustments and what are they going to expect us to make our adjustments on, and then there’s that little game of chess now. That’ll be the fun part.”

Nicksick also believes that this first fight is going to look very similar to the UFC 297 headliner because of the styles and toughness of both men.

He can’t see a way that it doesn’t end up being a test of both men’s wills when the going gets tough.

“You would love to say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna go in there and smoke this dude’ but Dricus, he’ll look awful and then he comes back and does his thing so you got to expect a knockdown drag out fight. 2-2 going into round five, hey we’re down to the last five minutes, we’re going to have to dig deep and figure out a way to get this fight, that’s how we have to train, that’s how we have to expect it. It’s going to be to the death.”

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Eric Nicksick On Khabib Nurmagomedov Being Unhappy With Belal Muhammad During Training: ‘Punking Belal In Front Of Everybody…’

Xtreme Couture’s Eric Nicksick may be regarded as one of the best coaches in the sport but that doesn’t mean he’s not able to learn things from others in the same field. Since making the decision to retire on top of the sport, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has seamlessly transitioned into a coaching […]

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Xtreme Couture’s Eric Nicksick may be regarded as one of the best coaches in the sport but that doesn’t mean he’s not able to learn things from others in the same field.

Since making the decision to retire on top of the sport, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has seamlessly transitioned into a coaching role.

Not only has he achieved a lot of success in the corner of other fighters, athletes will often share stories of how far coach Khabib will push people in training.

He appears to have taken up a similar coaching style to that of his late father, and if it worked for Abdulmanap, why fix what isn’t broken.

Eric Nicksick Recalls Key Lessons He Was Able To Take Away From Watching Khabib Nurmagomedov Coach

During a recent interview with Red Corner MMA, Nicksick reflected on what it was like getting to watch Nurmagomedov lead sessions at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas.

He reflected on one story in particular that showed him how professionalism is key to what they do alongside working hard in the gym.

“Those guys do it at the highest standard at the highest level. One of the funny things too was Belal Muhammad brought a guest that was not cleared by Khabib and then like Khabib was not happy about that and just like kind of made me realize like I sometimes open my doors too much and allow people to come and train that we don’t get vetted through the system.”

Nicksick went on to explain that Nurmagomedov walked a fine line between being actually annoyed by this scenario, whilst having fun with it at the same time.

“You could feel like he was joking but he wasn’t, he was serious about it and Belal was like, ‘Oh dude, I’m so sorry,’ you know, and he goes, ‘I don’t know who this guy is.’ Then like the best part is like Khabib and I are sitting here and he kind of looks at me and he’s like, ‘Yeah Eric, are you going to let a guy in your gym that you don’t know, maybe he’s fighting one of your guys,’ like just kind of punking Belal in front of everybody, it was funny. But obviously, Khabib let the guys still continue to train but there was a process to that.”

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