Head coach for Francis Ngannou, Eric Nicksick talks about this friend’s future with PFL and beyond.
Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou is on to bigger and better things. The breakout star left the UFC in hopes of signing a contract with a new MMA organization and giving himself the opportunity to try boxing against some of the biggest names in the sport. Part one of his plan has now been set. He signed a contract with the PFL earlier this month with a history-making contract. Ngannou is still looking to set up his very first boxing match but now his coach Eric Nicksick is praising him for cementing his legacy.
“It’s very different in the legacy is groundbreaking, right? I think he did something where he set a tone for other fighters to know that there are other things that you’re capable of doing,” he said to Submission Radio. “It’s not like Muhammad Ali level but I think it’s this generation of combat sports level of going, Hey man, like I could step outside certain organizations and go and do things and become part of the business and have equity in the business.”
Ngannou had it in his mind that he wanted to not only set himself up with a good contract but help other MMA fighters around him. In signing with PFL he is guaranteed that any opponent of his will make at least $1 million, and has become chairman of the PFL Africa organization to help advance the sport in the country’s communities.
Eric Nicksick thinks that Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones could happen one day
“I’m just an optimistic dude by nature, so I would never say no, I wouldn’t close the door on that,” he said. “Dana and Hunter those guys run the UFC but there are also people above them, there are investors and there’s WME and IMG and people that, ESPN for example. So I feel like they have bosses on bosses that might say like, No dude, we’re gonna do this and we’re gonna roll this out because that is the fight that I felt everybody wanted to see…maybe later on down the line, and a year or two from now that fight can transpire.”
