Eric Nicksick says Ali Abdelaziz feud is over after physical altercation
· Yahoo Sports
Eric Nicksick (pictured) discussed his public altercation with Ali Abdelaziz. | 📷: Getty/UFC
Eric Nicksick claims his brief feud with Ali Abdelaziz has been settled.
Abdelaziz and Nicksick reportedly got into an altercation shortly after Manel Kape’s win over Kyoji Horiguchi last month. Abdelaziz allegedly even threw a punch at Nicksick before being escorted out of the venue by security.
Eric Nicksick explains his Ali Abdelaziz incident and apology
Nicksick recently addressed the incident without divulging too many details. He claims that while he gets into a lot of arguments with Abdelaziz, the latest one came to the limelight since it happened in public.
“I told him Argentina was gonna beat Egypt. We’re brothers, man. You get arguing with your wife, it happens in the house. This happened more in front of people, so it became more out in public,” Nicksick told Ariel Helwani. “But we’ve been friends for 15 years. We argue, we fight, we bicker and we literally roll over the next day. It wasn’t that big of a deal.”
Nicksick coaches Kape, who is managed by Abdelaziz. He claims the manager owned up to his mistake and apologized, and the beef was then squashed as the Xtreme Couture head coach believes in forgiveness.
“To his credit, he said, ‘Look, dude, I’m sorry, I made a mistake.’ I’m a man; he’s a man; I think forgiveness needs to be something that we practice a lot more,” Nicksick added. “I can understand some of the things he’s upset about… But it really has got nothing to do with me. But it’s all squashed. We have too much to lose, man. We have too many guys in common… We’re all good.”
For the incident to have escalated to the point of a physical altercation, Nicksick blames certain things involving others that were lost in translation.
“I just think there's some things that are lost in translation, amongst other guys in the room that need to get squared away. And at the end of the day, it’s my job.” As for the punch allegedly thrown by Abdelaziz, Nicksick said, “Nothing that affected me.”
Nicksick also admits that the recent online back-and-forth between Kape and Sean Strickland also played a part in the feud with Abdelaziz. While Kape and Strickland both train at Xtreme Couture, the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight king has been going off on Abdelaziz. “Starboy” has since come to his manager’s defense, unbothered by a potential confrontation with Strickland despite the size difference.
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