Despite Francis Ngannou (16-3 MMA) being widely renowned for his devastating knockout power. Head coach Eric Nicksick believes his fighter kicks are more agonizing than getting hit with a baseball bat.
Ngannou will be making his first defence of his Heavyweight title against the UFC’s interim titleholder and former teammate Ciryl Gane (10-0 MMA) at UFC 270.
The Heavyweight Champion trains under the direction of his head coaches Eric Nicksick and Dewey Cooper at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.
However, this came about after ‘The Predator’ chose to relocate camps at the end of 2018 after having multiple disagreements with his former head coach at the ‘MMA Factory’ in Paris, Fernand Lopez.
During a recent appearance on ‘The MMA Hour’ compared eating Ngannou’s leg kicks to being hit with a baseball and it was very clear what the MMA coach had an easier time dealing with.
“I’ve been hit in the back with a baseball bat before, and literally the bat, it broke. It was a wooden bat, it broke across my back, and it didn’t bother me one bit. Then I’ve been kicked by Francis to the point where I couldn’t walk for two weeks, man. Like, it’s bad. It hurts, man. It hurts bad.
“I’ll have the Fairtex (leg) pads on, and he’ll start kicking that pad — and the pad, all of a sudden, feels like it starts to get scared, and the pad starts to move apart. You’re like, ‘Oh man, this thing’s going to land hard. This thing’s going to land flush.” (Transcribed by the Mirror)
Nicksick further stated that Ngannou’s “ungodly” strength and power is something you cannot obtain and developed through training.
“It’s a different type of power, man, the way that this man can kick and punch and throw and generate power. It’s ungodly. There’s nothing that you can train to be like, that type of power,” Nicksick said.
