Nicolas Otamendi already had plenty of power… Just ask Gabriel Jesus.
Jesus suffered a broken eye socket courtesy of his Manchester City teammate’s elbow when the pair met on international duty over the summer in an incident which left City fans furious with the Argentine defender.
Jesus was substituted in injury time of a clash between Brazil and Argentina in what was supposed to be an international friendly in Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnLgFpvzw7s
Otamendi is clearly not afraid of being physical and he was recently put through his paces by top UFC light heavyweight Jimi Manuwa.
Manuwa could well earn himself a UFC title shot with a victory over Volkan Oezdimir this weekend but he has maintains that a deal is in place to swap the Octagon for the boxing ring next year for a clash with former world heavyweight and cruiserweight champion, David Haye.
‘The Poster Boy’ is a busy man but he found the time to teach Otamendi a thing or two while the centre-half was on City’s preseason tour of the United States.
When @Notamendi30 met @UFCEurope's @POSTERBOYJM for an intense MMA workout session! Good luck at #UFC214, Jimi! 🤜🏿🤛🏼 #cityontour @ufc pic.twitter.com/5M8rOdiTTC
— Manchester City (@ManCity) July 24, 2017
Otamendi didn’t look too beat up after the session, for which he thanked Manuwa in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
“Thank you very much to Jimi Manuwa for the training session,” Otamendi wrote. “It was a pleasure to meet you! All the best for UFC 214.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BW711wkFhag/?taken-by=nicolasotamendi30&hl=en
And, as for Otamendi’s relationship with Jesus, there seems to be no remaining hostility after their clash last month.
“It’s all good with Gabriel. We had a great game and I actually spoke to him in the locker room after the game,” Otamendi said this week.
“We’re all good as teammates — we’re used to being able to compete tough on the field and obviously it didn’t work out for him. But it’s good.”
