New Delhi: Former middleweight champion Sean Strickland has responded to coach Nicksick’s harsh criticism after his poor performance against Dricus du Plessis at the UFC 312. He failed to put pressure on the South African and du Plessis broke his nose midway through the fight.
Nicksick has been the chief cornerman to Strickland during his rise through the middleweight division and into his championship win against Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 in September 2023. He guided Strickland to the top again for a rematch against Du Plessis but the match did not go well for him.
After Strickland’s poor performance, his coach did not hold back his feelings and said that the fighter needed to evaluate what he wanted to do in this sport. He further added that if Strickland wants to make money then he should let everyone know.
“I want to coach world champions, so my motivations are different. So I think that just to kind of show up and do that, and not really back it up, to me was just kind of uninspiring” Nicksick said on The Ariel Helwani Show.
‘That entire fight camp was just a struggle’: Sean Strickland
Nicksick’s comments were enough for Strickland to issue a public response on social media. The former UFC champion talked about the issues he faced leading up to stepping into the octagon at UFC 312. He wrote on X that Nicksick is his friend and he’s going to continue to be his friend but probably he will not be in his corner.
“I like Eric. He’s a friend of mine. He’s going to continue to be a friend of mine. Will he probably be in my corner? Probably not. We have so many great guys at Xtreme. We have so many savages that can corner me. But that entire fight camp was just a struggle. It was a struggle, and we all have excuses as to why we didn’t win, or why we won or we shouldn’t have won. We all have excuses, and they don’t matter” Strickland said.
Former middleweight champion Sean Strickland has responded to coach Nicksick’s harsh criticism after his poor performance against Dricus du Plessis at the UFC 312. UFC Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
