Sean Strickland’s coach points out the missing edge, explaining the factors behind the UFC 297 loss to Dricus du Plessis.
Nicksick was in the corner of Sean Strickland in his first title defense against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297. After the first round, Nicksick was happy with everything he saw, but in the second round, he noticed Strickland was getting away from the game plan.
The rest of the fight was very competitive, and in the end, it was Du Plessis who edged out a split decision win, which was disappointing for Nicksick.
“Those close fights hurt me the most because that means we left some crumbs behind. We didn’t win the optic battle, we didn’t do little things we could have done to sway the judges, and that falls on me as a coach. That is a tough pill to swallow at times because it’s a world title and I know how hard that are to come by,” Nicksick said on The Anik & Florian podcast.
As Nicksick says, in close fights, all he had to do was tell the fighter to do one more thing which could have swayed the rounds, which makes it frustrating.
Eric Nicksick reveals going away from teep kicks hurts Sean Strickland
The one thing that Eric Nicksick was disappointed with is Sean Strickland going away from the teep kicks and leg kicks in the later rounds.
Nicksick believes Strickland was winning and slowing down Dricus Du Plessis with the kicks but strayed away from the game plan.
“I felt pretty good about (rounds) 1 and 2. After round 1, we fought the round perfectly, after round 2, we got away from the one thing I wanted most in the fight was our teep (kick), we got away from it. I jumped on him after round 2. The teep works differently for every opponent, it served a different purpose against Izzy, but for this fight, was very important for us to flatten the tires, knocking the wind out of the body, flatten the tires, that was one,” Nicksick said.
“Number two, it kept distance management, it didn’t allow him to run forward with those different combinations, you stick him right to his belly and his chest and it stops it.It also gives another scoring criteria for the judges to see. Now you start adding the kicks, the optics look different, you have a two-seam fastball (the jab) and now you have a cutter (the teep kick). Both are fastballs, but both are working well. That was my thing after round 2, we have to get back to the teep and start chopping the legs more and flattening the tires,” Nicksick continued.
With Strickland losing the title to Du Plessis at UFC 297, it’s uncertain what will be next for the former champ.
