Sean Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick has sounded off on his loss at UFC 312 over the weekend.
‘Tarzan’ returned to the octagon in the primary occasion of the UFC’s pay-per-view providing from Australia on Saturday. There, Sean Strickland once more met middleweight champion, Dricus du Plessis. ‘Stillknocks’ famously gained the gold from the boxing-heavy American final yr, by a controversial break up determination.
Nonetheless, their second assembly at UFC 312 was something however controversial. Du Plessis dominated Sean Strickland throughout 5 rounds on Saturday, bloodying the previous champion badly in spherical 4. Whereas ‘Tarzan’ confirmed toughness going the space with a damaged nostril, he didn’t get a lot reward. As a substitute, many, many high-profile fighters, analysts, and coaches have blasted his efficiency.
Now, Sean Strickland is getting criticism from his personal head coach, Eric Nicksick. The pinnacle of Xtreme Couture has guided the likes of Francis Ngannou and Aljamain Sterling to UFC gold previously and coached ‘Tarzan’ to a title win over Israel Adesanya in 2023. Nonetheless, Nicksick isn’t happy with Strickland’s newest efficiency towards Dricus du Plessis.
RELATED: LUKE ROCKHOLD SLAMS ‘B*TCH’ SEAN STRICKLAND FOLLOWING UFC 312 TITLE LOSS: “FIGHT LIKE A F*CKING MAN!”
“I believe [Sean Strickland] wants to guage what he needs to do within the sport. If it’s simply to generate profits, then that’s nice. Tell us.
I wanna coach world champions. My motivations are completely different. Simply to form of present up and try this and probably not again it up, to me, was simply… pic.twitter.com/wVl4JFnORK
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 11, 2025
Sean Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick sounds off on lopsided UFC title defeat
Showing on The Ariel Helwani Present earlier immediately, Eric Nicksick provided some criticism of Sean Strickland’s efficiency. The longtime coach admitted that he was extremely disillusioned with the best way the previous champion fought after his speak main into the occasion. Whereas Nicksick nonetheless has respect for ‘Tarzan’, he believes he has so much to determine on his finish.
“It was simply uninspired preventing to me.” Eric Nicksick acknowledged on The Ariel Helwani Present earlier immediately, discussing Sean Strickland’s efficiency. “It simply appeared like he was sleepwalking, it was robust man… So it was robust. It was a tricky 25 minutes, to journey all the best way on the market, and let’s not neglect this was a title combat. I take these title fights very severely. I don’t know, I used to be simply disillusioned, I used to be disillusioned with the entire complete consequence. The entire combat as a course of, I simply thought it was form of flat.”
He continued, “… I do [agree with some of the criticism]. I do, now we have to be actual. It was only a very underwhelming efficiency in a possibility to combat for a title… We didn’t carry out. That’s all on all of us. On the identical time, I believe he wants to guage what he needs to do on this sport. If it’s to generate profits, that’s nice, tell us. I need to coach world champions. So, my motivations are completely different. I believe that, simply to form of present up and try this and probably not again it up, to me, was simply uninspiring.”
What do you make of those feedback from Eric Nicksick? Who do you need to see Sean Strickland face in his subsequent UFC look?
