Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick thinks the UFC likely set up that backstage brush-off between heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and interim champ Ciryl Gane.
Ngannou (16-3 MMA, 11-2 UFC) crossed paths with Gane, UFC middleweight Nassourdine Imavov and former coach Fernand Lopez backstage during UFC 268 in November, but Ngannou just walked past his former team without even acknowledging them.
Nicksick, who trains Ngannou, thinks this was a promotional ploy by the UFC to amp up Ngannou’s title unification bout with Gane (10-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) on Jan. 22 at UFC 270.
“I don’t really think it was anything to be honest with you,” Nicksick told MMA Junkie Radio. “I don’t know what Francis 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 and Fernand have a history that maybe he just didn’t feel comfortable with going over and approaching those guys, 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.’ Also, great job on the UFC to make it. It did it’s job, and it made it a little bit of that tense vibe in that moment, but at the end of the day, these guys are gonna fight. 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.”
Gane, who was cornering Imavov on that night, mainly took issue with Ngannou snubbing Imavov, who served as one of his main training partners at MMA Factory in Paris. But Ngannou later revealed that he didn’t say hello to his former teammates mainly because of his rift with Lopez and some of the harsh words that his former coach had said about him.
Eric Nicksick: UFC did good job to create ‘tense vibe’ between Francis Ngannou, Ciryl Gane
