Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick gives his thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev and Aljamain Sterling ahead of their fights at UFC 273.
Coach Likes What He Sees From Chimaev
Only four days away from UFC 273 and Chimaev’s toughest fight to date. Leading up to his fight, “Borz” made a stop at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and got to work with head coach Nicksick.
Nicksick was very impressed with the undefeated fighter.
“I loved it. I loved his competitiveness. Like every single round, every single second, he is trying to win and I love that about him. I loved his energy,” Nicksick told Fight Nation on Sirius XM. “Man, this guy is the real deal.”
Aljamain Sterling
Another fighter on UFC 273 that Nicksick has worked with over the years is bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.
During the interview with Fight Nation, Din Thomas brought up the fact that people are not giving Sterling any credit because of the way he acted after UFC 259. However, rewatching the fight, Thomas saw some things that worked in Sterling’s favor, and Nicksick agreed.
“I’m with you. I think there are a lot of things he did really well, and having that experience, and understanding the things that might have gone wrong, like – he did push really, really hard in the first round. That might have cost him a lot of that energy going into [round] three and four,” Nicksick said.
“We have to think, this was his first title fight, the energy, the nerves. So, having that experience now, if only going to help him. But I’m with you, he did a lot of really good things. Let’s not forget he was winning on one judge’s scorecard. Now, Yan was taking over in round four, we know what was going on there, but leading up to the knee, he was doing some pretty good things.”
Nicksick has been on a roll with the fighters he has coached this year, so will we see a clean sweep this Saturday? We only have to with four more days.
UFC 273 goes down this Saturday, April 9th, on PPV.
"I was really impressed with Khamzat. This guy is the real deal."@Eric_XCMMA discussed working with both Aljamain Sterling and Khamzat Chimaev ahead of #UFC273 with @RJcliffordMMA and @DinThomas pic.twitter.com/bS88I2Qbnj
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) April 5, 2022
