Jimmy Flick has ridden a rollercoaster of good and bad luck through his mixed martial arts career. Now he’s been forced to deal with something he hasn’t had to cope with before – a lengthy injury layoff.
After earning his spot on the UFC’s flyweight roster via Dana White’s Contender Series back in 2020, Flick made an instant impression with a first-round flying triangle finish of Cody Durden. But, just a few months later, he retired from the sport.
Flick eventually walked back that decision and returned to the Octagon in January 2023, but back to back losses put him behind the eight ball and fighting for his UFC future. With his back against the wall, he defeated Malcolm Gordon to earn himself a new four-fight contract with the UFC.
But, with Flick back on a high, bad luck struck again, as he went to the scorecards for the first time in his career and suffered a decision loss to Nate Maness at UFC Fight Night: Perez vs. Taira in Las Vegas in June.
Speaking to RG.org, Flick revealed that he went into that bout injured, and it affected his ability to put the pressure on his opponent as the bout wore on.
“I thought my rib was broken in Round 2 when he kicked me in the body,” he explained.
“That is when I really slowed down in Round 2. I planned on picking up the pace more because that was Nate’s first time getting out of the first round at 125.
“So, the second and third round, the gameplan was to push the pace, kick the leg more, make him work more on the wrestling part.
“But when he got me in the ribs it slowed me down. I told my coach, ‘I think he broke my rib.’ Well, he was like, ‘What do you want to do?’
“‘I want to keep fighting, obviously.’ He didn’t break my rib, thank goodness, (but) it still feels like it’s not the same rib any more.”
Flick also revealed that he’s currently rehabbing a knee injury, and that he counted himself lucky that he didn’t have to go under the knife to have it surgically repaired.
“Thank goodness I have no surgery. I have a light tear in my MCL and a partial tear in a word that I can’t pronounce.
“I was supposed to get stem cell injections, they suggested they wanted me to do more physical therapy and wear a knee brace instead of stem cell injections, so that pushed recovery a little longer.
“Now we are in our second part of physical therapy and I got about three weeks left of that, then hopefully I’ll be cleared to go back to training.”
Flick’s challenge now is to stay patient as he rehabs his knee and slowly starts the process of building himself back up to full fighting fitness. That’s likely to take him towards the end of this year, but “The Brick” said he hopes he can get back to full fitness and be able to squeeze in one more fight before the end of the year.
“I will throw this out there, I know he didn’t get signed by the UFC, (but) I would love the Nick Piccininni (fight). I probably can’t pronounce his name right, no disrespect to Nick or anything like that. The thing is Nick is an OSU wrestler – I grew up my whole life wrestling in Oklahoma.
“Unfortunately, I messed up my life at a young age and I wasn’t able to pursue my career as an actual collegiate wrestler, and I found Brazilian jiu-jitsu at 17 and it took over from there. So, a high-class wrestler like that stepped up on 10 days notice, fought a guy like Jack Duffy, and he got the decision. I know it was a split, I think yes, it could have gone either way.
“I do agree with Dana (White) giving them a rematch, but I think if they do rematch and he actually has a fight camp, I think (Piccininni) will get the unanimous decision win. I don’t know if he can find the submission over Duffy – he was scrappy. What I am saying is, I would love to fight an All-American wrestler vs. an All-American jiu-jitsu guy.
“Nick Piccininni, I ain’t got no disrespect for you, I’ll be watching you. If you do make it to the UFC, throw my name out there. I think it would be a great match and Oklahoma will love it.”
