Coach Eric Nicksick believes Francis
Ngannou broke the proverbial four-minute mile barrier for MMA
fighters with his showing against Tyson Fury
on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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Ngannou dropped the WBC heavyweight champ in Round 3 before taking
him to a tightly-contested split decision. While Ngannou came up on
the short side of the controversial split decision, “The Predator”
was definitely the biggest winner of the night, being hailed as the
new lineal heavyweight champ by fans and pundits alike.
Nicksick believes the former UFC heavyweight champ’s performance
has set a new benchmark for MMA fighters looking to venture into
pugilism. For Nicksick, it was the second shocking performance from
one of his pupils in recent times after Sean
Strickland’s massive upset win over Israel
Adesanya at UFC 293 last month.
In the immediate aftermath of Ngannou’s clash on Saturday, Nicksick
contacted Strickland with the proposal of a potential move to
boxing, and according to him, the newly crowned UFC middleweight
champ obliged.
“The first thing I wrote Sean
Strickland: ‘Ready to move to boxing?’ And he’s like, ‘Damn
right. That’s all I do (is) spar boxers, anyway,’” Nicksick
recently told MMAjunkie
Radio. “I think that Francis paved that way and showed we are
capable of competing, and not only competing, winning and putting
it together at a high level. I’m proud of him, he kind of laid that
groundwork.”
While Ngannou’s performance might have come as a shock for the rest
of the world, his coach has seen the former sand mine worker from
Cameroon has overcome too much in life.
“Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to Francis and the
level of expectation he carries,” Nicksick said. “We love that –
the doubt and everything that we’re told we can’t do. It does
motivate us, and I know it motivates him. This is something that
he’s had in his mind for such a long time now. For it to come to
fruition, there’s a moment in the ring where Tyson was walking in,
and I’m just taking it all in, looking at the event itself, and
Francis looks over at me and just has this big-ass smile on his
face. I’m like, ‘Dude, you did this.’”