All RSS feed content is owned by the respective 3rd party website.
Love him or loathe him, former middleweight champion Sean Strickland remains one of the most honest and upfront athletes on the entire UFC roster.
Earlier this week, there was a stirring out of the Xtreme Couture gym when head coach Eric Nicksick admitted that he was disappointed in Strickland for the manner in which he fought at UFC 312.
Almost as soon as those comments hit the airwaves, you knew it wouldn’t be long before ‘Tarzan’ came back swinging – although removing Nicksick from his corner wasn’t something many fans saw coming.
Sean Strickland responds to coach Nicksick’s comments over UFC 312
Speaking via The Ariel Helwani Show earlier this week, coach Nicksick stated that Sean Strickland “needs to evaluate what he wants to do in the sport,” after his middleweight title loss to Dricus Du Plessis last weekend.
“If it’s just to make money, then that’s great. Let us know. I wanna coach world champions. My motivations are different. Just to kind of show up and do that and not really back it up, to me, was just kind of uninspiring.”
Nicksick critiqued that Strickland’s performance was simply “uninspired” and that he was “disappointed” to have traveled halfway around the world for a half-hearted showing from his star pupil.
[embedded content]
Strickland has now responded to those comments, admitting that it’s unlikely that Nicksick will be in his corner again for his future UFC bouts.
“I like Eric, he’s a friend of mine and he’s going to continue to be a friend of mine – will he probably be in my corner [again]? Probably not,” he said in an Instagram post.
“We have so many great guys at Xtreme [Couture], Nate [Pettit], Ray Sefo, we have so many savages that I would love to corner me. But that entire fight camp was just a struggle. It was a f—– struggle.”
MORE BLOODY ELBOW NEWS
Strickland not only admitted to the rumored staph infection but would also reveal that he’d suffered a broken arm in camp and even had VISA issues as Fight Week approached.
“We all have excuses as to why we didn’t win, or why we won, and we shouldn’t have won. We all f—– have excuses and they don’t f—– matter… Nothing with Dricus, he came there and fought his a—off. F—– broke my nose, hell yeah. Hats off you fought like a f—– man.”
Following the defeat at UFC 312, Strickland would drop just one place in the rankings (from #1 to #2), although he’s already back in the gym training as he looks to get back in the win column.
“I don’t fight to put belts on the wall. I don’t f—– fight because Eric wants to go do a f—— fancy podcast… Through the UFC and fight fans, you guys have changed my f—– life.
“I’ve got a lot of fights left on my contract, I love fighting [and] I’m going back to the gym, working my a—off and starting from f—– square one. That’s just kind of how life is.”
Strickland gets an unlikely ally from UFC Fight Night headliner
Nicksick’s comments have divided the MMA community, with a host of fighters both past and present coming out in support of Strickland – including one half of this weekend’s headlining attraction.
During an appearance on MMA Today on Sirius XM, middleweight contender Jared Cannonier would come to Strickland’s defense; the crux of his argument being that fans are bitter that Strickland didn’t ‘kill or be killed’.
“I mean, what do we expect out of people? He was going up against a guy who can throw hard, we’ve seen the shots he was throwing. I can hear him throwing his shots, you can feel the intent, the energy behind it. You can hear the shots landing, even though Sean was protecting himself from a lot of them, you can still see the danger in them.
“Everybody is mad at him because they want to see him walk in and either kill or be killed. F— y’all. Ya’ll ain’t paying us to do that s—. You are paying us to try and be the best fighters in the world and you’re putting us against each other.”
Cannonier steps into the octagon this weekend in the main event of UFC Fight Night 251, scheduled for February 15 at The Apex, against former LFA champion Gregory Rodrigues.
“Ya’ll can kiss my a—all of those who have that sort of sentiment towards fighters,” continued Cannonier regarding Strickland’s post-UFC 312 debate.
“If ya’ll don’t like it, get you’re a— up, get to work, and I’ll meet you in the Octagon. We’ll see how easy it is for you guys to run yourself into a woodchipper ‘to the death!’”
