SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – FEBRUARY 09: (L-R) Sean Strickland punches Dricus Du Plessis of South Africa within the UFC middleweight championship combat throughout the UFC 312 occasion at Qudos Financial institution Enviornment on February 09, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photograph by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick was in Sean Strickland’s nook at UFC 312 over the weekend, and didn’t like what he noticed from his fighter. Which has led to Nicksick agreeing with among the criticism that has be levied on the former champ within the days because the card in Sydney, Australia.
Strickland misplaced a unanimous choice in a rematch with Dricus Du Plessis that noticed the American look notably uninspired. That, in reality, was precisely the phrase Nicksick used throughout an look on The Ariel Helwani Present on Tuesday.
“It was just uninspired fighting to me. It just seemed like he was just sleepwalking. It was tough, man,” admitted Nicksick, who has coached Strickland, Francis Ngannou, and Aljamain Sterling to UFC titles. “I was just trying to dig him out of it through the rounds. I didn’t know if he was trying to collect data in the beginning, or if it was just a slow start, or what was going on.”
“As the rounds began to progress, I could just tell it just didn’t feel like he was in it the way most of the times that he is.”
“So it was tough, it was a tough 25 minutes, to travel all the way out there. And let’s not forget, this was a title fight, and I take these title fights very seriously,” continued Nicksick. “I don’t know. I was just disappointed, I was disappointed with the whole entire outcome, the whole fight as a process, I just thought it was kind of flat.”
Nicksick added that he actually didn’t anticipate that type of efficiency to occur from his star. “Sydney is good vibes, good ju-ju, everything that went on out there last time with Israel [Adesanya], I thought it was the place to be. I was very happy about that situation, getting back out there to fight, and getting the rematch with Dricus.” The Xtreme Couture coach was proud of Strickland’s camp, noting that he had labored on issues in camp that had been higher this trip. “I was very excited for it. Just for that type of performance, it was just very underwhelming.”
Nicksick did affirm that his fighter had been battling a staph an infection a “couple of weeks prior to us leaving [for Australia]” and had been on antibiotics, however dismissed it as a cause for why Strickland fell flat at UFC 312.
So far as agreeing with the criticism of Strickland not residing as much as his hype — the American has claimed willingness to combat to the demise — “Yeah of course. I do. I do. We have to be real. It just was a very underwhelming performance in an opportunity to fight for a title. There’s people in this sport that never even realize that potential to ever even be in an opportunity to fight for a championship. That should be enough to get you motivated to get you off the couch.”
Nicksick took his share of the blame, noting that “It just to me was, we didn’t perform. That’s on all of us.” On the similar time, he added, “I think he needs to evaluate what he wants to do in this sport. If it’s to make money, that’s great, let us know. I want to coach world champions. So my motivations are different. I think that, just to kind of show up and do that and not really back it up, to me was just uninspiring.”
Requested level clean whether or not he would wish to cease working with Strickland had been such performances to proceed, coach Eric Nicksick replied by saying “Yeah, I think that that’s a fair assessment that I would have to sit down with Sean and talk to him about. Where can my services be of help for you? I think as a coach you get credit for things you don’t do essentially as much, and you get the blame for things you might not do as well. You’ve got to be right there in the middle.”
“In situations like this where your motivations might change, and if that’s the case, if his motivations have changed to something different, where it’s like ‘hey I prefer to fight for money or a paycheck,’ and it’s not to be the best or be a world champion, then yeah I think as a coach and fighter we should sit down and have that conversation. I love him, he’s a great teammate, he’s a great guy, you guys have heard me say that time and time again. But if your fights aren’t to be the best in the world and they’re for money, then that’s not really what I’m looking for. I want to compete against the best, I want to win world titles, and that’s my main focus and goal.”
