It has been three days (Sat., Feb. 8, 2025) since former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion Sean Strickland was completely shut out at UFC 312 by Middleweight kingpin Dricus du Plessis en route to a dominant unanimous decision from inside Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (watch highlights).
Since the fight, several fighters, including a current UFC champion, have criticized the outspoken fighter for his lackluster performance. Today, Strickland’s head coach, Eric Nicksick, has analyzed his fighter’s showing.
“It was just uninspired fighting to me. It just seemed like he was just sleepwalking. It was tough, man,” Nicksick told Ariel Helwani. “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.”
Nicksick has seen all of the criticism that has come Strickland’s way and believes it’s fair.
“Of course, I think it’s fair. We have to be real like it was just a very underwhelming performance in an opportunity to fight for a title. There is people in this sport that never even realize that potential or get the opportunity to fight for a championship. That should be enough to get you motivated and off the couch.”
“To me, we just didn’t perform,” Nicksick added. “It is on all of us. It’s on me as a coaching staff. It’s on Sean, and 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.”
The Xtreme Couture coach, who has been coaching Strickland full-time for about five years, was also asked if he still wants to coach him after UFC 312.
“I think that’s a fair assessment that I would have to sit down with Sean and talk to him about,” Nicksick said. “Where can my services be of help for you? … In situations like this, 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,” Nicksick concluded. “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.”
For complete UFC 312 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.
