Coach Eric Nicksick has spoken out regarding the reaction to how he responded to Sean Strickland’s failed attempt at reclaiming the UFC middleweight title earlier this month.
The Xtreme Couture trainer was Down Under in Sydney, Australia earlier this month to corner Strickland at UFC 312. The former champion headlined in competition for Dricus Du Plessis’ gold.
While the South African had narrowly fallen on the right side of a split decision in their first fight, the rematch was far more convincing, with “Stillknocks” cruising to a lopsided decision victory across five rounds.
Strickland received plenty of flak for his performance, not least from his head coach. Nicksick gave a brutal assessment of his pupil, branding his attempt at winning back the middleweight belt “uninspiring” and questioning his motivation.
The 33-year-old evidently didn’t take too kindly to the public review, expressing plans to switch up his corner team moving forward while addressing the criticism in a social media video.
A number of other prominent names in the MMA space, from Daniel Cormier to Matt Brown, have also spoken out against Nicksick’s decision to publicly slate his fighter. And in the comments section of an MMA Fighting Instagram post showing “The Immortal’s” remarks on it, Strickland’s coach admitted to making an error.
“@iamtheimmortal I agree, Matt, looking back at it I made a mistake,” Nicksick admitted. “My true intentions were to try and motivate him publicly, and that was a miscalculation on my part.”
It remains to be seen whether Strickland will push through with his plans to utilize new personnel for his next corner in spite of Nicksick acknowledging his mistake.