The first time Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis met in the Octagon at UFC 297, their fight was too close to call. The second time around, not so much. In fact, ‘DDP’ absolutely wiped the floor with ‘Tarzan’ in their UFC 312 title rematch earlier this month, dominating all five rounds and breaking Strickland’s nose in an absolute clinic of a performance. And no one was more critical of the American’s performance than his own coach, Eric Nicksick.
The Xtreme Couture head honcho publicly criticized ‘Tarzan’s underwhelming performance. “I think he needs to evaluate what he wants to do in this 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. So I think that just to kind of show up and do that, and not really back it up, to me was just kind of uninspiring,” the coach said in an interview with Ariel Helwani.
And ‘Tarzan’ took this criticism to heart. Not in the positive sense that he recognized where he fell short and needs to improve. But in the sense that he was very butthurt at Nicksick’s comments. To the point that the former champion has ‘fired’ Nicksick. “I like Eric. He’s a friend of mine and is going to continue to be a friend of mine. Will he probably be in my corner? Probably not,” Strickland said in a four-minute video after the coach’s comments.
And it turns out that the friction between Strickland and Nicksick goes deeper than just the former’s UFC 312 performance. At least that is what Nicksick’s Xtreme Couture gym fellow coach, Justin Jayne has claimed. So what was this issue? Well, surprisingly, money.
“So Eric sent Sean a very long text message, it’s like five paragraphs, talking about, you know, payment and so on so forth… He sent him a very long text message wanting to talk about you know their agreement, and Sean ghosted him and that obviously would be very upsetting if I’m calling somebody to talk about what I think I deserve and what I’m being paid and they just don’t answer. That would f—ing p–s me off,” Jaynes said in an interview with YouTube channel ‘Ten Seven MMA’.
This financial dispute, combined with the fact that Nicksick put in so much work to prepare and then corner Strickland for UFC 312, only for ‘Tarzan’ to not even put on a real fight really seems to have ground the coach’s gears. At least that is what Jaynes is claiming.
“And I imagine Eric had some emotion about that. And then to go off on Sean saying ‘he was only fighting for a paycheck’… For him to take off the time to put into Sean, you know, putting in an eight-week fight camp… then going to Australia for two weeks just for a guy that doesn’t even care about winning, he felt that not only was he shorted financially, he was taking time away from his other fighters that do want to compete seriously. And he wasn’t getting paid what he thought he deserved,” Jaynes added.
To be fair to Nicksick, the man never actually publicly talked about his financial disagreements with Strickland. This is kind of admirable. The coach must have known that ‘Tarzan’ won’t take the criticism well. Moreover, he could have just gone all out and burned the bridge by talking about not getting paid enough by Strickland.
In fact, that could have put more pressure on the verbose American to settle the money issues between them. Since no fighter wants to be known as the guy who doesn’t properly pay his coach. Another point that is worth mentioning is some of the MMA world luminaries’ reactions to this whole fiasco.
‘DC’ and Helwani come out in support of Eric Nicksick amid differences with Sean Strickland
Sean Strickland’s ‘firing’ of Eric Nicksick has not gone down well with the MMA world. Ariel Helwani, for instance, felt that it was ‘ironic’ Strickland got so upset at the criticism. When ‘Tarzan’ himself is known for saying some of the wildest stuff without regard for other people’s feelings.
The legendary MMA journalist stated, “The irony that Sean Strickland would get offended or upset that his coach would publicly just say, ‘You know what? Your heart wasn’t into it, and if it won’t be into it, maybe we should go our separate ways.’ Of all people, that guy got offended, the guy who uses the pre-fight and the post-fight press conference and every other media opportunity to wax poetic on all things that pertain or don’t pertain to him… That guy got offended that his coach was on a show, that guy got bothered. Does no one else see the irony?”
But then again, your coach publicly chewing you out is a bit different than going off on politics or geopolitics at press conferences. However, UFC legend Daniel Cormier does think the coach did the right thing. Even if Nicksick’s relationship with Strickland will never be the same now.
“I don’t blame coach Nicksick for what he said… and I think any great coach needs to judge their athletes fairly, but very harsh whenever they don’t compete to the ability that you expect them to… I think we’re gonna be seeing more changes coming out of Xtreme Couture,” ‘DC’ said on his official YouTube channel.
What are your thoughts on Xtreme Couture’s fellow coach’s revelations?
The post “Sean Ghosted Him” – Insider Exposes Sean Strickland as Rift With Coach Erick Nicksick Takes an Ugly Turn appeared first on EssentiallySports.