Dana White’s Power Slap League has had a hard time finding supporters since its inception earlier this year.
The so-called sport has received scrutiny from fans, fighters, and journalists across the board thus far. Now you can add coaches to the list. Specifically Eric Nicksick, the iconic coach of former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. The GM of Xtreme Couture recently spoke with Mike Owens in a MiddleEasy exclusive and the pair couldn’t resist talking about the UFC president’s foray into the ridiculous world of slap fighting.
“I’m not a big fan of it,” Nicksick revealed. “I’m not a big fan. I just don’t see how it makes any sense to have somebody hold their hands behind their back and then just take blunt-force trauma to the ear. To the face. To me, there’s no defense. There’s no style. There’s no countering. There’s nothing really to it other than, ‘This big ol’ Olympic power lifter is gonna give me a TBI (traumatic brain injury) and if I live, I get my turn.’
I don’t find any grace in it at all and I think that it almost feels like in a lot of ways it takes MMA a step back. Very primitive and seeing some of the knockouts and the posturing. I was looking at some neurosurgeon commenting on it just how awful this has got to be on the brain health. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
UFC veteran Eric Spicely said he was contacted to see if he’d like to participate in the Power Slap League. Not sure what the full pay scale is, but this nugget caught my attention: pic.twitter.com/Qlej95KmJs
— Luke Thomas🏋️♀️ (@lthomasnews) January 23, 2023
Former UFC Fighter Reveals Embarrassingly Low Pay Scale For Power Slap Competitors
Power Slap received another batch of bad publicity when it was revealed that the pay scale for competitors was embarrassingly low. Former UFC competitor Eric Spicely was reportedly approached to participate in the league and confirmed that he was offered a meager $2,000 to show and $2,000 to win.
“You as the fighter have to understand the risk/reward,” Nicksick said. “Taylor Guardado was offered a spot on this and when they told me what the pay was I’m like, ‘This makes zero sense.’ Zero sense for me to put this girl in this position. Now if it was $15,000/15,000 and she was at a time in her career where she could use the money, I would present that to her, but the moment they told me that it was $2,000/2,000 for her I was like, ‘Mick (Maynard), I’m not putting my girl in this’ and he actually agreed with me. It makes zero sense for me to even ask her if she wants to go do this.
“Possibly getting knocked out and what does it do to the future of your brain health? How far does that put you behind with concussions? It just makes zero sense to me and to me it’s not hypocritical by any means when it comes to MMA because you have the option and the ability to block and slip and roll and catch and counter. With this, you don’t have that option. You’re holding your hands behind your back and you’re just waiting to get hit in the f*cking head.”
