Sean Strickland’s Coach Struggled to Motivate Him Mid-Fight: ‘Do I Need to Get on Him?’
Sean Strickland‘s coach Eric Nicksick seemed unimpressed after Strickland was defeated by Dricus Du Plessis for a second time at UFC 312. This time around, the fight wasn’t as close as Du Plessis walked away with an easy unanimous decision victory after narrowly winning via split decision in their first match.
was Sean Strickland Unmotivated?
Sean Strickland’s coach, Eric Nicksick, discussed the fight to lengths and went in about the lead-up and Strickland’s training. He discussed how during fight week sparring sessions went well and believed Strickland was well-prepared going into the fight. Despite getting staph infection, Nicksick believed Strickland handled the antibiotics well as it showed in his sparring and preparation during fight week.
In their first fight, Strickland put the pressure on Du Plessis the first few rounds and seemed like he had control early on. That wasn’t the case in the second fight as Strickland seemed to come out a bit flat and not as aggressive as he was in their previous matchup. Even Nicksick was a bit surprised about the approach as he didn’t want Sean Strickland to lose rounds as the first fight was razor-thin.
“Is he flat, or is he collecting data? I didn’t like—there was a part of me that was like, “Oh, do I need to get on him, get on him?” But I didn’t want to lose rounds.” -Eric Nicksick
After the fight, Nicksick stated he wanted to “coach world champions” publicly criticizing Strickland and his motivation from the fight. The intent was to encourage and motivate Strickland but was perceived in many ways as people felt like that should’ve been a private conversation between the two.
Will Nicksick continue coaching Strickland?
After the statement Nicksick made about Strickland, many may wonder if he’ll continue to coach him and if the two want to continue to work together. He admitted to making a calculated error about his statement saying, “What I was trying to do in a roundabout way, was to challenge my fighter to perform better the next time out…”
Sean Strickland ended up fighting a bout with staph infection and sustained a broken nose later in the fight but continued fighting. Despite the mistake that Nicksick acknowledged, he has respect for Sean Strickland and gave him praise for fighting through a broken nose and having a champion mindset.
