Francis Ngannou's coach Eric Nicksick recalls the moment in Riyadh that almost made him break down in tears

This past Saturday, Francis Ngannou did the entire MMA community proud when he took on heavyweight boxing great Tyson Fury in the latter's own world. Ahead of the bout, no one gave the Cameroonian knockout artist any hope of winning beyond a puncher's chance.

However, Francis Ngannou stepped into the ring extremely well-prepared, dropping Tyson Fury en route to a split-decision loss that fans and fighters alike feel he should have won. A major reason for Ngannou's success was his coaching team, which consisted mainly of Mike Tyson, Dewey Cooper and Eric Nicksick.

While 'Iron Mike' made headlines for coaching Ngannou, Nicksick was also key. In a recent interview with ESPN's Marc Raimondi, he was asked about any notable experiences he had on Saturday, and Nicksick mentioned an encounter with his boxing idol, Lennox Lewis, that almost brought him to tears:

"Mine was Lennox Lewis. He came up, said 'Hello,' shook my hand, we had a little bit of, like... Randy Couture was sitting next to me, dude, and Lennox came up and said 'Hey man, huge fan, love what you're doing.' I damn near started crying. Cause he's, like, one of my idols when it came to boxing, and I was actually making a point to somebody before I even knew Lennox was even there. I was like 'You know, I think Tyson is, yes, right up there, but Lennox is my number one, you know, as far as the best heavyweights to ever do it.'"

The full extent of Nicksick's sentiments about the encounter can be caught (at 13:07 minutes) in the video below:

Besides Francis Ngannou, Eric Nicksick is also notable for being one of reigning UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland's coaches and was among the few who believed in the latter's chances against Israel Adesanya.

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The PFL on Francis Ngannou's next MMA fight

Given recent news, it's likely that Francis Ngannou may find himself back inside the squared circle of boxing sooner rather than later. The PFL, who signed him to a historic contract earlier this year, has recently revealed that it has no compelling opponents in mind for the former UFC heavyweight champion.

PFL founder and chairman Donn Davis joined Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, where he mentioned that while the organization has fighters he believes would be competitive against Ngannou, there aren't many he feels make for compelling matchups. Instead, he singled out Jon Jones, who is signed to the UFC.