Francis Ngannou’s MMA coach Eric Nicksick has responded to Chael Sonnen’s rants on his fighter’s split from the UFC.
Many have argued that the UFC dropped the ball with Ngannou, as his stock has never been higher after nearly defeating WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Sonnen has publicly argued against this notion, still believing that “The Predator” fumbled the bag by walking away from the UFC.
Eric Nicksick Responds to Chael Sonnen’s Rant on Francis Ngannou
During an interview with MMAJunkie, Sonnen claimed that the money Ngannou is receiving now is not much greater than what he would’ve received had he fought current UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones. He also, claimed Ngannou could’ve made that much money had he been more active in the UFC.
“To make believe that $10 million is somehow significantly more than he would’ve got on his pay-per-view participation alone against Jon Jones is incorrect. Not to mention the two years that he sat equals six fights. Let’s bring it back and call it five. And making it really easy, let’s call it four fights. His four fights would’ve equaled $10 million had he promoted them.”
During an appearance on the “WEIGHING IN” podcast, coach Eric Nicksick pointed out the problem with Sonnen’s statement.
“Chael made an interesting point in regards of he would be right if he weren’t injured and had the time to actually be able to fight those fights that he’s speaking of,” Nicksick said. “The other side of that coin was we were offered 8 million to fight Jon Jones, that is correct, but where the hang up was, was what happens if he potentially lost to Jon Jones? Where does that set him back contract wise? Again, people talk about like, ‘Oh, put your money where your mouth is,’ it’s about setting yourself up correctly and making sure that you’re covering your butt on the backend. People that just don’t understand the business side of things. So, ultimately, yes, I understand what Chael was saying in regards of had we been able to fight four fights in the last year, but because of his knee injury we did have a minor setback as far as just a cleanup job of the knee. That was in April and then we were able to get back into camp. So, had he been able to fight, it probably would’ve been about the same timeline of fighting Jon Jones maybe September, October.”
Here is Eric Nicksick’s full “WEIGHING IN” appearance:
