“You hope to God he doesn’t miss,” Eric Nicksick talks about what it feels like to hold pads for Francis Ngannou


“You hope to God he doesn’t miss,” Eric Nicksick talks about what it feels like to hold pads for Francis Ngannou

Eric Nicksick and Francis Ngannou

If you really get intimidated from the comfort of your couch far away by how Francis Ngannou knocks his opponent, consider the pain Eric Nicksick goes through daily on his hands and sometimes, head. Ngannou, the current UFC heavyweight champion with one title defence under his record, has been coached by Eric Nicksick of Xtreme Couture since 2017.

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Specifically, Nicksick focuses and works on Ngannou’s striking leaving the other parts to the rest of the coaches in a gym that hosts the likes of elite fighters like Sean Strickland, Dan Ige and many more. Ngannou was previously training in the MMA Factory of France, from where Ngannou got to fight his former teammate Ciryl Gane in his first title defence. To many’s surprises, Ngannou became the first fighter to defeat Gane in his professional career back in January 2022 at UFC 270.

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Eric Nicksick remembers his head ‘ricocheting’ during ground and pound work with Francis Ngannou

Francis Ngannou with his new coach Eric Nicksick
Francis Ngannou with his coach Eric Nicksick

In an exclusive article written by MMA Fighting journalist Shaheen Al-Shatti talking about the amount of pain pad holders of the fighters go through whilst training them, Nicksick was the premiere voice in that interview and he gave an insight on how it exactly feels to hold pads for the possibly the most dangerous knockout artist Ngannou has become in the UFC history.

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 “Francis has hit me through my pad,” says Nicksick. “I’ll catch his cross and my own hand will hit me in the mouth or crack me in the face, to the point where I’ve been rocked by my own hand. Then Francis on the ground-and-pound, he’ll throw elbows and your head is still on the ground, you have nowhere to go. My head is literally ricocheting off the canvas… you hold for Francis and a lot of that is like: Just don’t get killed. You hope to God he doesn’t miss,” continues Nicksick [h/t MMA Fighting]

Out of his 17 professional wins, 12 wins came by the way of knockout for Ngannou and 4 wins by submission. Where do you put Ngannou’s punching power amongst the best heavy hitters ever seen in MMA history? Who do you think is next for Ngannou on his return? On his way to the title fight when he knocked out his former nemesis Stipe Miocic, Ngannou had knockout wins over the likes of Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Antos, Alistair Overeem, Andrei Arlovski, and many more.

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