— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA)
February 12, 2025
Eric Nicksick’s very public critique of Sean
Strickland could have consequences for the
Xtreme Couture coach.
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Nicksick, who has been Strickland’s main coach during his rise to
becoming middleweight champion, wasn’t pleased with his charge’s
performance against Dricus Du
Plessis in the UFC 312
main event this past Saturday. Nicksick made that very clear when
he referred to it as “uninspired fighting” during a recent interview on “The Ariel
Helwani Show.”
Strickland, who lost a clear-cut unanimous decision in his rematch
with Du Plessis, has responded to the criticism via social media.
It appears that the ex-UFC champ will no longer have Nicksick in
his corner going forward.
“I like Eric. He’s a friend of mine and he’s going to continue to
be a friend of mine. Will he probably be in my corner? Probably
not,” Strickland said in a video on X. “We have so many great guys
at Xtreme [Couture]… We have so many savages that I would love to
corner me.
“But that entire fight camp was just a struggle. It was a f—king
struggle. We all have excuses as to why we didn’t win or why we won
and we shouldn’t have won. We all f—king have excuses and they
don’t f—king matter. The only reason I’m doing this video is Eric
had to go do a f—king podcast and become an influencer, so I’ve got
to be like kind of explain myself.”
Strickland revealed that he suffered a broken bone in his arm
approximately two months before the fight and was also dealing with
a staph infection during his camp. Despite those struggles,
Strickland says he did what he could to make it to fight night.
“But all camp this is just in the back of your head and you just
keep telling yourself ‘I’m f—king good’ and I think this is what
all men do,” Strickland said. “All men do this. You look in the
mirror and even though you’re not good, you’re like ‘I’m f—king
good, you’re a f—king man, you sack up.’
“But all camp whether it be the staph infection, the broken arm,
having to get a visa that didn’t get approved until a week [before
the fight], not being able to get cornermen out there. This entire
camp was a struggle of I’m not good but me looking in a mirror and
saying ‘sack up.’”
While Strickland came up short in his second attempt to recapture
the middleweight crown, he claims that his passion for the sport
hasn’t waned.
“You [the fans] made me grow so much as a person in the ring and
out of the ring and that’s why I fight,” Strickland said. “I f—king
love it. I’ve got a lot of fights left on my contract. I love
fighting. I’m going back to the gym. I’m working my ass off and I’m
starting from f—king square one. That’s just kind of how life is.”