During his match with Demetrius Andrade, Demond Nicholson’s coach Kenny Ellis attempted to smack him straight. As the bpxing bout neared its conclusion, Nicholson was having trouble squaring up with Andrade.
Ellis then came to the decision that he had to take things into his own hands physically. In place of the corner’s customary pep talk, Ellis repeatedly smacked Nicholson.
Additionally, he was heard yelling, “Wake up! It’s time to f***ing fight!”
However, it was ineffective since Nicholson lost to Andrade, who is currently 32-0. All three judges gave Andrade a 100-88 victory. After the victory, Andrade declared his intention to face opponents of the greatest caliber.
Since going viral on social media, the video of Nicholson being slapped has drawn more than 500,000 views.
Ellis’ actions astonished and amused fans.
One wrote: “Dang he already taking punches. Corner giving him the beats too? Lol.”
Another person said, “Wow!!!!🤣🤣.”
A third person said, “Wake ya ass up cuz I got money on the line 😂.”
One more said, “Had me crying.”
This kind of behavior is somewhat unusual but not entirely unheard of. Over the years there have been guys in the UFC who insisted on getting slapped prior to their entry in the cage but very rarely did they ask for something like that in between rounds.
In fact, Aspen Ladd’s corner was heavily criticized when they were harsh to her in an attempt to get her to rally and make a comeback in one of her UFC bouts.
"Please, tell me what you're doing?"
Aspen Ladd's corner was not happy 😬
(via @jedigoodman)pic.twitter.com/NTxfrjhDfY
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) October 17, 2021
The criticism was all the more loud considering the coach in question was also Ladd’s much older fiancé.
Afterwards she offered an excuse for his behavior, sharing that a similar tact had worked once before and gotten her to pull of a surprise comeback.