“Was he supposed to go over and hug the guy?” - Francis Ngannou’s coach discusses infamous UFC 268 backstage incident
Francis Ngannou’s coach Eric Nicksick has weighed in on the reigning UFC heavyweight champion’s infamous UFC 268 backstage incident.
🚨 SCENES BACKSTAGE AT #UFC268. 👀
🏆 @Francis_Ngannou & @Ciryl_Gane get a good look at each other months before their championship clash! https://t.co/mVVlH93rAJ
Backstage at UFC 268 on November 6th, Francis Ngannou walked right past his former head coach Fernand Lopez and former sparring partner Ciryl Gane, completely ignoring them.
In an interview with MMA Junkie, Francis Ngannou’s current head coach, Erick Nicksick of Xtreme Couture, was asked about the incident. Nicksick dismissed the incident by stating:
“I don’t think it really was anything, to be honest with you. I don’t know what Francis [Ngannou] was supposed to do. Was he supposed to go over and hug the guy and jump in his arms? They’re gonna fight. But I know Francis has no ill will towards Ciryl Gane. He doesn’t. But I know him [Ngannou] and Fernand [Lopez] have a history that, maybe he just didn’t feel comfortable with going over and approaching those guys."
Nicksick went on to state that he believes the situation was set up by the UFC to portray bad blood being between the two fighters.
"But it was set up. You could tell. It was like, ‘Hey, we’re walking this way. Oh, we’re gonna walk over this way now.’ So, great job on the UFC to make it. It did its job and made a little bit of that, kind of tense vibe in that moment. But at the end of the day, these guys are going to fight, man. So, I don’t know if he was supposed to take the dude out to lunch, and hug, and kiss, or whatever. It is what it is. But it brought a good story.”
Watch Francis Ngannou’s coach Eric Nicksick discuss the UFC 268 backstage incident in the video below:
Francis Ngannou on what caused the backstage incident at UFC 268
Speaking to Daniel Cormier a few days after UFC 268, Francis Ngannou suggested that he doesn’t have anything against Ciryl Gane. ‘The Predator’ added, however, that his former coach Fernand Lopez keeps attacking him, which is why he chose to ignore him backstage at UFC 268.
Ngannou, who parted ways with Lopez and the MMA Factory gym a few years back, explained:
“It has been a couple of year now that he's been out there picking on me” Ngannou also noted, “It's not like we're friendly. He's attacking me all the time. So I can't do that. You know I don't feel like it.”
UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is set to fight interim UFC heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane in a title unification bout at UFC 270 on January 22nd.
The winner of the fight will emerge as the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion and is likely to defend the title against Jon Jones in 2022.