Eric Nicksick says Sean Strickland beat Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328 by staying calm through the early wrestling, keeping the fight away from the fence, and letting his jab turn the night ugly for Chimaev.
Nicksick, Strickland’s head coach at Xtreme Couture, broke down the win on The Ariel Helwani Show. He also questioned the way Chimaev’s official weigh-in was handled, while making it clear the athletic commission ruled that Chimaev made weight.
“We knew we had a big task at hand with the style matchup, but thankfully we had two camps in a row that were very similar in Fluffy Hernandez as well as Khamzat,” Nicksick said. “So we were able to kind of snowball the game plan into the next camp and, you know, obviously Sean stayed in shape. So it worked well, man. Everything landed as perfectly as possible and all the credit goes to Sean, man. He did all the work.”
Watch the full interview below:
Nicksick Says Strickland Won By Staying Himself
Nicksick said the plan was not to reinvent Strickland for Chimaev. The plan was to trust what Strickland already does well and force Chimaev to fight from less comfortable positions.
“It’s Sean is the game plan,” Nicksick said. “Sean is the style that I think a lot of times you can overthink a game plan. But you allow your fighter to be who he is and what he is, but also kind of try to dictate what Khamzat’s game plan is going to be versus that particular style.”
The main tactical point was cage position. Nicksick did not want Strickland backing straight to the fence and giving Chimaev easy wrestling entries.
“The biggest thing for us was just owning the geography, making sure we weren’t putting our back against the cage and inciting the takedown,” Nicksick said. “Try to keep Sean more in the middle.”
Nicksick wanted more body work, but once Strickland’s jab started taking over, the fight moved into a rhythm Chimaev could not comfortably control.
“We didn’t attack the body as much as I would like to have,” Nicksick said. “I think that was going to help in as far as neutralizing the midline level change, but also the cardio of Khamzat. But once Sean kind of got going downhill, especially with his jab, I know a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, he just jabbed him up.’ Yeah, man. It’s very tough. It’s very tough when that pace and rhythm, but also his defense, I think, was on point that fight as well, his shoulder rolls and everything else.”
Strickland’s defensive wrestling also mattered. Nicksick pointed to round two, where Strickland’s counter-wrestling helped shift the fight away from Chimaev’s preferred pace. That matched the wider reaction after the fight, including Daniel Cormier saying Strickland’s jab and defense created a workable blueprint against Chimaev.
“To be able to defensive wrestle and counter wrestle what we saw in round two, you know, we lean heavily on Sean and we just build game plans around him and his style,” Nicksick said.
Nicksick said the first round was not a disaster for Strickland’s corner, even though Chimaev opened with heavy wrestling. The team expected that storm and wanted Chimaev to burn energy trying to keep Strickland down.
“During sparring, it was a lot of heavy wrestling in round one, kind of assuming that’s what we were going to get,” Nicksick said. “But Sean had a good idea of how to handle that situation after what we saw with Robert Whittaker. Just kind of stay relaxed, stay patient, allow Khamzat to try to mat return, to try to get in these positions, but we had to make him grapple to expend that energy.”
“After round one, I know a lot of people were like, ‘Oh s—t, here’s how it’s going to go,’ but in our head, it was like that was perfect,” Nicksick said. “That was the perfect round that we wanted and that’s what we got. We kind of assumed that’s what we’re going to see in round two and round three was going to be our swing round, but it came a little bit earlier in round two. So to be able to bank rounds two and three going into the championship rounds really, I think, helped us a ton.”
Nicksick also explained the team’s “sheep dog” message during camp. Chimaev’s nickname is “Borz,” which translates to wolf, and Strickland’s team did not want him chasing that image.
“We all know the analogy, right? Who’s protecting the flock? And that’s the sheep dog,” Nicksick said. “You have to have that sheep dog mentality to be able to protect the flock, be able to protect your team, be able to protect your gym. To me, that’s the epitome of who and what Sean Strickland is.”
“That’s been kind of the mantra all camp,” Nicksick said. “Don’t become a wolf. How do we beat a wolf? You have to do something that the wolf doesn’t understand, and that’s the sheep dog. So that’s what we hung our hat on all camp, man. You’re the sheep dog. We’re the boogeyman, not him. We live underneath a boogeyman’s bed. So that’s what we kept telling him.”
Nicksick Questions Chimaev’s UFC 328 Weigh-In
Nicksick was careful when asked whether Chimaev made weight. He acknowledged the official ruling, then explained why he still had an issue with the process.
“Per the athletic commission, apparently he made the weight,” Nicksick said. “I don’t feel as if that he did. I think that should be something that is consistent across the board, that if you’re on that sliding scale, the scale should have to settle.”
Nicksick said the ruling was already made, but he wanted the standard applied evenly.
“Can’t carry over spilled milk,” Nicksick said. “They said he made weight, but the inconsistencies, yeah, I mean, how are you going to do that to Charles Oliveira? It’s the same exact scenario.”
“That’s a commission thing,” Nicksick said. “That’s not a UFC thing. That’s on the commission. So they need to be consistent across the board on how they handle that situation.”
He also questioned why fighters check their weight on a digital scale before stepping onto a separate balance scale for the official number.
“The ironic thing is they use the digital scale to check weigh-in,” Nicksick said. “So when you show up to check your weight, it’s a digital scale and then they take you over to the official scale and then they use the balance scale. So I don’t understand, why are you using two separate scales?”
“If that’s the case, then you have to let the scale settle,” Nicksick said. “It’s like you step on the scale and then you allow the guy to just jump right off.”
Nicksick said Strickland’s team still had to prepare for the best version of Chimaev. He did not treat the weigh-in scene as a reason to assume the fight was already tilting their way.
“I don’t think you can put a lot of stock in that,” Nicksick said. “I think it’s more about the rehydration process and how did he get the weight back on? How did he feel afterwards? You have over a 24-hour period to rehydrate.”
“I also don’t think you should put too much stock in the fact of like, ‘Oh, we’re going to beat him now,’” Nicksick said. “It’s like you have to kind of keep that tunnel vision and expect the best Khamzat Chimaev no matter how he looked on the scales or not.”
The result added another layer to the post-fight debate around Chimaev, after Dustin Poirier said Chimaev’s aura took a hit and other fighters kept arguing about how to score the fight.
