Johnny
Walker’s coach, Eric Nicksick, isn’t one to shy away from
accountability.
Walker took on fellow veteran Dominick
Reyes at UFC 327
earlier this month. Contrary to expectations, the bout was largely
marked with inactivity, leading to boos at the Kaseya Center in
Miami. Reyes eventually earned a lackluster split-decision win over
Walker, with very little to score in the whole fight.
Advertisement
Nicksick takes responsibility for Walker’s underwhelming
performance. Nicksick believes the onus falls on him to communicate
his expectations to his fighter.
“Johnny did a great job,” the
Xtreme Couture coach told MMAjunkie.com. “We had great preparation. And if there
is disconnect between what I wanted for the game plan and his
execution, that falls on me as the coach. I’ve got to get him in a
position to be firing on all cylinders, seeing the reads that I’m
seeing, the expectations that I want from him. And at the end of
the day, that falls on us as staff. We have to have him prepared
mentally and physically to be in position to go out and do the
right things.”
Learning Experience
Nicksick further hinted that Walker was dealing with minor health
issues during fight week, which showed residual effects on fight
night. However, Nicksick once again takes responsibility for
accepting the fight and putting his fighter inside the Octagon
while the latter was not at 100%. Walker is still new for Nicksick,
who is taking the loss as a learning experience.
“There was some stuff that Johnny was dealing with during fight
week that I knew was gonna zap his energy system all throughout the
week,” Nicksick said. “He got through it fine, the weight cut went
through fine. The day of the fight there were some residual effects
to what he was dealing with symptoms-wise. But it’s us that took
the fight, obviously, we weren’t gonna pull out of the fight. We
put our athlete out there and it just wasn’t the best showing in
the world that we could have had. I know that the fans were upset
were upset with the performance by both of the guys… It’s still a
learning experience for Johnny and I. That’s our second fight
together.”
Walker (22-10) was training with Conor
McGregor’s coach, John
Kavanagh, in Ireland before joining Xtreme Couture in 2025. The
Brazilian has since scored an upset TKO win over Mingyang
Zhang before the uninspiring loss against Reyes.