George Hickman and Frank Hickman are no longer heading up the MMA coaching team at Tiger Muay Thai. The former described it as a ‘personal decision’.
Speaking to SCMP he made it clear that the split was amicable. He said that he was staying in Phuket and that there would be ‘more news’ coming soon about his future plans.
George started his coaching journey with Tiger Muay Thai having fought out of the camp for several years. He made it clear that the departure was amicable,
“I’ve been at TMT since 2014 (and) I have no ill will, it was very cordial. It was a personal decision that I made,” he explained.
In recent years Tiger Muay Thai has helped the likes of Petr Yan, Alex Volkanovski and Valentina Shevchenko become UFC champions while homegrown talent Loma Lookboonmee has also enjoyed success in the octagon.
George says he will look back at this period with some fond memories,
“My time at Tiger, as a coach I grew a lot and the opportunity that I was given while I was still fighting was a great opportunity and I’m grateful for that. I met a lot of great people, I worked with a lot of great people and it was cool to be a small part of that gym and we had a lot of good years recently.”
He would not be specific about his next move but made it clear that he was staying in Phuket,
“I’m not leaving Phuket and it’s a very exciting time. It’s been a couple of years in the making and it’s exciting.”
Replacing the Hickman brothers will be Joseph Henle, a BJJ black belt who will be heading up the MMA team and another trainer whose identity has yet to be revealed. Phuket recently opened up to allow tourists in, albeit with very strict Covid-19 protocols in place.
