Sean Strickland left much to be desired in the Octagon at UFC 312 in Sydney, Australia.
The former UFC middleweight champion was adamant he deserved a rematch against Dricus du Plessis after their January 2024 encounter, which Strickland lost via split decision. After an uneventful win over Paulo Costa in June, Strickland got his opportunity to reclaim the belt this past Saturday but failed to make any meaningful adjustments in the rematch, which led to a clear-cut du Plessis title defense.
As frustrating as the fight may have been to watch from a competitive standpoint, no one was more bothered than Strickland’s head coach, Eric Nicksick of Xtreme Couture.
“It was uninspired fighting to me, it just seemed like he was sleepwalking,” Nicksick said Tuesday on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “It was tough, man. I was just trying to try 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. But as the rounds began to progress, I can tell that just didn’t feel like he was in it the way most of the times that he is. So yeah, it was tough, man. It was a tough 25 minutes to travel all the way out there.
“Let’s not forget, this is a title fight — and I take these title fights very seriously. I was just disappointed, man. I was disappointed with the whole entire outcome, the whole fight as a process. I just thought it was just kind of flat.”
While the entertainment levels of Strickland’s fights vary by the matchup, for the most part a strong jab and teep kick offense is the usual game plan out of the brash middleweight every fight, along with a strong defensive shell that carried him to his crowning moment in September 2023.
Strickland’s first trip to Australia arrived in a challenge for the UFC middleweight title against then-champion Israel Adesanya. In one of the biggest upsets and defensive masterclasses in recent UFC history, Strickland dethroned the all-time great, winning four rounds to one on all judges’ scorecards.
From Nicksick’s perspective, every factor surrounding Strickland’s latest return to Australia for the du Plessis rematch made his fighter’s performance unimaginable.
“I really didn’t [expect it],” he said. “Sydney’s good vibes, good juju — everything that went on out there last time with Israel, I thought it was the place to be. I was very happy about that situation, getting back out there to fight. Then, getting the rematch with Dricus, I think there was things that we worked on all camp that were better than the last time around. We had a feel of what Dricus was going to implement.
“I was very excited for it, man. So just for that type of performance, it was very underwhelming.”
Many speculated whether Strickland dealt with staph infection ahead of UFC 312. At the event’s pre-fight press conference, Strickland was asked about an exposed mark on his right arm and deflected the question. Nicksick confirmed to Uncrowned on Tuesday that Strickland did indeed deal with staph infection throughout camp, but he doesn’t believe that it explains Strickland’s poor effort on fight night.
Several other prominent coaches and MMA figures have already criticized Strickland similarly in the days since UFC 312. MMA pioneer and top UFC analyst Din Thomas discussed the topic on Monday’s “The Ariel Helwani Show,” claiming Strickland isn’t the guy he portrays himself to be verbally before fights. Although Nicksick says that may be too broad of a brush to paint Strickland with, he understands the critique.
“We have to be real,” Nicksick said. “It just was a very underwhelming performance in an opportunity to fight for a title. There’s people in this sport that never even realized that potential to ever even be in an opportunity to fight for a championship. That should be enough to get you motivated, to get you off the couch. So it just, to me, was [that] we didn’t perform. So that’s 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 the sport.
“If it’s just to make money, then 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 [at UFC 312] and do that and not really back it up [after making so many pre-fight promises], just to me was just kind of uninspiring.”
Frustration began building in Strickland’s corner early into the du Plessis rematch, but it was nothing unusual for the tandem. Nicksick labeled his and Strickland’s in-fight interactions as “typical” of their dynamic. The former champion was arguably his most competitive in the early going, however Nicksick still considered the rounds too close for comfort — especially after du Plessis vs. Strickland 1.
Ultimately, Strickland won only a single round on a single scorecard, with the other two judges awarding “DDP” a clean five-round sweep. As the action unfolded, Nicksick did his best not to lose hope.
“He’s kind of checked out,” Nicksick said when asked for his mid-fight thoughts. “That’s kind of what I’m thinking, it’s like you’re grasping at straws at that point. You’re trying to get him to do something. My dad used to always say in football, you got to get something to get the band playing, right? Get the crowd and get motivated, get the momentum on your side again. So I’m asking for anything. The jab and the teep aren’t going to win the fight. It’s like if you have a predictable offense and you run this slow-paced offense in football and you get down by 30, you don’t have the ability to come back and win those games, right? You just don’t have the ability to come back and win those types of games.
“You have to take risks. You have to make something creative happen, and just jabbing and teeping your way to a comeback win wasn’t there. So it’s like, dude, find the same side head kick, throw some knees up the middle, throw something different that’s not predictable to what Dricus has seen for the last nine rounds. We have to mix it up.
“We don’t want to be giving rounds away, especially after the first [fight], right? It was such a close fight that giving round one away was scary enough for me. I don’t want to give any rounds away, let alone one and two. We have to come back, and really, we don’t have that one-hitter-quitter comeback mentality with Sean. That, to me, was just kind of like, ‘Well, we’re going to have to try to start doing something different.'”
Regarding the game plan for the rematch, Nicksick said Strickland strayed away from the team’s intentions of interrupting du Plessis’ combinations with Strickland’s own offense.
The loss is still fresh, and plenty needs to be discussed inside the walls of Xtreme Couture. Nicksick isn’t bailing on his fighter, but he is concerned about Strickland’s intentions going forward.
Once they have a serious conversation, he’ll have a better idea of what the future could hold.
“I would have to sit down with Sean and talk to him about, right? Where can my services be of help for you?” Nicksick said.
“I think, as a coach, you get credit for things you don’t do essentially as much, or you get the blame for things that you might not do as well. So you kind of have to be right there in the middle. But in situations like this, where your motivations might change [as a fighter] — 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, man. He’s a great teammate, he’s a great guy. You guys heard me say that time and time again. 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. That’s my main focus and goal.”
