Days after shredding Sean Strickland over his efficiency at UFC 312, coach Eric Nicksick knew he’d f*cked up.
Strickland got here up quick in his long-awaited rematch with reigning middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis in Sydney, Australia, delivering a lackluster efficiency en path to a decisive unanimous resolution defeat. Strickland’s poor outing was made all of the extra worse by the truth that the fighter had challenged ‘DDP’ to battle him “to the death” 48 hours earlier.
Addressing his fighters’ shortcomings on an episode of The Ariel Helwani Present following UFC 312, Nicksick referred to as Strickland’s displaying “uninspired” and that it appeared like he was “sleepwalking” by way of the entire 25-minute affair.
Nicksick then went on to recommend that if Strickland will not be considering turning into a world champion as soon as once more, he might have to search for one other coach.
“It was just uninspired fighting to me,” Nicksick stated. “It just seemed like he was sleepwalking. … It was a tough 25 minutes to travel all the way out there. Let’s not forget, this was a title fight. I take these title fights very seriously, and I don’t know. I was just very disappointed, man. I was disappointed with the whole entire outcome and the whole fight as a process. I just thought it was kind of flat.”
Nicksick continued, “I think he needs to evaluate what he wants to do in this sport. If it’s just to make money, then that’s great. Let us know. I want to coach world champions, so my motivations are different.”
Getting wind of Nicksick’s feedback, Strickland launched a prolonged response on X revealing that Nicksick probably gained’t be in his nook going ahead.
Eric Nicksick categorical remorse after lambasting Strickland over UFC 312 loss
Wanting again on all of the drama throughout a current episode of his Verse Us podcast, Nicksick stood by the message he delivered on Helwani’s present however admitted that his supply may have been lots higher.
“And it was very disappointing to listen to the place his headspace was and what his thought course of was about being a champion or all this stuff. And that’s private. I ought to have recognized higher. I took that power and needed to course of that whereas I’m going on Ariel’s present. I f*cked up. I f*cked up. … I made a miscalculation in that second in ever accepting to go on the present. My wording was piss poor.
“What I said was accurate—the fight was uninspiring. We all know Sean. That is not how Sean fights. What I said was accurate. Am I to shoulder some of that blame? 100%. I made a calculated error on that part. But what I was trying to do, in a roundabout way, was challenge my fighter to perform better the next time out.”
