Eric Nicksick To Corner Sean Strickland at UFC Houston Despite Past Camp Issues
Coach Eric Nicksick will corner Sean Strickland when ‘Tarzan’ makes his return to the octagon at UFC Houston on February 21 against Anthony Hernandez.
Nicksick and Strickland had parted ways after the former criticized Strickland’s UFC 312 performance against Dricus du Plessis. While Strickland promised an entertaining fight and pledged to stand and bang against ‘Stillknocks,’ on fight night, he produced a lackluster show and just jabbed the whole 25 minutes. Du Plessis also broke the American fighter’s nose in Round 4 of the title rematch.
After the loss, Nicksick publicly criticized the former UFC champion’s performance, calling it uninspiring. On The Ariel Helwani Show, he said:
“It was just uninspired fighting to me. It just seemed like [Sean Strickland] was sleepwalking. It was tough, man… To travel all the way [to Austrailia], and let’s not forget, this is a title fight… I take these title fights very seriously. I was just disappointed, man.”
During the UFC 312 title rematch, Sean Strickland was urged not to be predictable by Nicksick, who, from the corner, asked ‘Tarzan’ to open up as he had to get a finish with just 10 minutes left and having lost the previous rounds. However, the 34-year-old did not pay heed to his coach’s advice.
After the loss, hearing his coach publicly criticize the performance, Strickland immediately declared that Eric Nicksick would not corner him again.
In the coming days, the two, however, made peace, and Nicksick even admitted that his timing of the criticism was wrong.
Eric Nicksick To Corner Sean Strickland at UFC Houston
Now, the head coach at Xtreme Couture has confirmed that he will continue to corner Sean Strickland, and the two have settled their past differences. In an interview with MMA Fighting on SBN, the 46-year-old said:
“Yes, sir, I’m there. First and foremost, I think for me, there were a lot of learning experiences from that situation, a lack of communication on both of our parts. But I was going through a lot personally with my dad’s health, and then traveling, and away from home, and all these things compiled into like kind of way that I felt the complexion of the camp was, and some of the injuries that Sean was dealing with.”
He added:
“And it really just boils down to the fact that, like, we just got to be better at our communication with one another, you know, and that was it. And we talked about everything about a week or two after the fact. He knew where I was coming from. He knew the bottom line was. I just have a high standard of expectations for him, because I know what he’s capable of, and he knows that I love him and I care for him. We sat down and spoke it out like men, and we’re good to go. So I’ll be there in his corner. We have a very tough opponent in ‘Fluffy.’”
Check out Eric Nicksick’s comments below (1:34):
On the other hand, Sean Strickland recently revealed that he was forced to take the UFC 312 title rematch, and he was not ready and had an injured shoulder.
