Eric Albarracin Gives Thoughts on UFC 280 Headliner, Cejudo’s Return, Nickal’s Potential

Eric Albarracin, the wrestling coach of Patricio Freire and Patricky Freire, will spend about half of 2022 in Natal, Brazil.

After actively participating in Patricio “Pitbull's” entire camp for his recent fight with Adam Borics, “Captain America” returned to Rio Grande do Norte, where he is helping Patricky “Pitbull” prepare for his title defense against Usman Nurmagomedov at Bellator 288 on Nov. 18.

“Patricky is ready in all areas. Kennedy Monday’s help has been really important in this camp. It will be a confrontation between two great schools, and I'm sure Patricky will return with the belt for Natal,” Albarracin told Sherdog.com.

In regards to another Brazil vs. Dagestan matchup, Albarracin shared his thoughts on the lightweight championship fight between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev at UFC 280 on Saturday.

“If Charles does what he said and pulls guard, it will make Makhachev's life easier,” Albarracin said. “These Russians have excellent positional control from top position and are used to training with great jiu-jitsu champions in California. But if he doesn't accept falling on the bottom, [is] defending takedowns and frustrating Islam, standing up again in case of being taken down, he has everything to impose his best standing game and come back with the belt.”

After Patricky “Pitbull” makes his title defense against Nurmagomedov at Bellator 288, Albarracin said he plans to go back to Brazil to help Deiveson Figueiredo train for his fourth meeting with Brandon Moreno at UFC 283 before returning to the United States to assist with preparation for Henry Cejudo’s Octagon return.

“Henry will show once again that an Olympic champion athlete is one in a billion,” Albarracin said. “I believe he will come back fighting for the bantamweight belt [against the Aljamain Sterling-T.J. Dillashaw winner]. Then he could fight for the featherweight title with [Alexander] Volkanovski. I thought this news that Dana gave was excellent that Volkanovski will be the next lightweight challenger, probably fighting in Australia. Imagine if he wins there and fights next with Cejudo….”

Another big name from the wrestling world that has caught Albarracin’s eye since making his MMA debut is Bo Nickal.

“World and Olympic champions like Cejudo and Nickal are distinguished athletes. Nickal has been training MMA for almost four years. I sincerely believe he would beat [Israel] Adesanya today, but obviously he still has time to evolve further. So I have no doubt that he will be the future UFC middleweight champion.”