Eric Nicksick is doing his best to keep Sean Strickland in check.
Often taking shots at other fighters on the roster, the UFC Middleweight Champion had a taste of his own medicine at the UFC’s seasonal press conference earlier this month. Upcoming title challenger Dricus Du Plessis insulted Strickland by stating he’d beat him far worse than his father did to him as a child.
This struck a cord with Strickland who, in turn, attacked Du Plessis cageside at UFC 296.
‘Fighting Emotional Is Not Who We Are’
With bad blood now surrounding the middleweight title fight, coach Nicksick reveals the talks he’s had with the heated Strickland ahead of UFC 297.
“I did mention that to [Strickland], I did say, ‘fighting emotional is not who we are,'” Nicksick told MMA Junkie. “Stylistically, I think that favors Dricus more. It opens us up more. So we need to stick with our game plan and stick with what we we wanna do, but don’t allow your emotions to take this over.
“There’s two sides of that coin. Sean has no problem saying what he says about everybody else, so people are gonna probably poke and say things about him as well. I think it’s a it’s a tough road to toe. So, can’t get too emotional about those situations.”
Finding The ‘Right Motivation’ For Strickland
Days removed from Du Plessis’ verbal onslaught, Nicksick is hoping he can help channel Strickland’s emotions the right way.
“They are just words and and but at the end of the day, I did feel like that he was triggered, and there was a few days where it just kind of motivated him. The motivation was there. Believe me. But I wanted him to understand that we had we need to have the right motivation. Didn’t need to be this infuriated guy going in there [thinking] ‘I wanna kill this guy’ because that takes us out of our game.
“It takes us out of our element and what we’re good at. But, he’s been great ever since then. We had a good conversation about it and I just told him I was proud of him.”
Strickland’s Impact On The World
Nicksick continued in his praise for Strickland, citing the new champion inspires a ton of people, some of which come from a similar background as ‘Tarzan’.
“I don’t think a lot of people really understand the amount of people that reached out to me after he won, he speaks for a demographic— he really does. So many people, I think, have this type of upbringing where they had parents that might have been abusive or they dealt with a broken home. All these things that Sean might have dealt with, he’s kind of their voice in a lot of ways. But what they’re seeing now is somebody becoming successful, and that that motivation for them is huge because they know that they can do it, too.
“Seeing Sean be able to rise through all that and become a champion motivates me to be better at this. And I told him that. I was like, bro, I don’t think you realize like just how much influence you have on these on a lot of these people that might have had the same upbringing as you. So, it’s important to to carry that with you and and be the voice for these people.”
Eric Nicksick will corner Sean Strickland in the main event of UFC 297 on Jan. 19.
