Eric Nicksick shares the story of how a thoughtful gesture from Francis Ngannou brought one of his coaches to tears
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Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick recently revealed how a gesture from Francis Ngannou moved one of his other coaches to tears.
Nicksick shared how fellow coach Nate Pettit is one of the hardest working guys in the gym, devoting his whole life to the Las Vegas-based camp. A couple of weeks ago, a teary-eyed Pettit walked up to Nicksick in the gym and said Ngannou had just handed him a check.
When Nicksick later thanked Ngannou for looking out for Pettit, “The Predator” said he didn’t want the coach’s efforts to go unreciprocated. Nicksick also credited Pettit for a significant role in preparing Ngannou for his knockout title win over Stipe Miocic at UFC 260 in 2021.
“Nate Pettit’s one of our coaches in the gym. Nate’s just one of the hardest workers you’re gonna see in the room,” Nicksick recently told MMAFighting.com. “Like the guy’s just constantly holding pads for people, constantly on the road, he’s a dog… Doesn’t have a family, doesn’t have a life — his life is this gym. We’re putting the new cages together, Nate came up to me with tears in his eyes. This is like two weeks ago. And he’s like, ‘Dude, Francis just handed me a check and just said thank you for everything that you do.’ I don’t know what the amount was. I didn’t even ask. But it was enough to move this man to tears, to an emotion. And I say to Francis later on, I was like, ‘Hey, thanks for giving, hooking up Nate.’ He’s like, ‘Of course, bro. I see how hard he works and I want to pay him for all the time that he’s given to others that maybe is not reciprocated back to him.’
“So, you know, just keeping it in the house, keeping it in the family, and the way he takes care of his coaching staff [and] people around him. Nate had a huge role in helping Francis beat Stipe Miocic. Nate ran those wrestling practices along with Dennis Davis. So, paying it forward to Nate, man, that’s just the type of person Francis is.”
Ngannou hasn’t competed in MMA since defending his title against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 in January 2022. Ngannou is now set to make his Professional Fighters League debut against 2023 heavyweight winner Renan Ferreira on Oct. 19 in Saudi Arabia.
