Sean Strickland’s lackluster performance at UFC 312, where he suffered a one-sided loss to Dricus Du Plessis, has led to public friction between him and his head coach, Eric Nicksick.
Since the fight, Nicksick has openly criticized Strickland’s performance, calling it “underwhelming” and “uninspiring.” He cited the challenger’s lack of offensive output and the broken nose he sustained in the fourth round as key factors in the loss.
Strickland responded by releasing a video detailing the physical struggles he endured leading up to the fight. He also stated that while he still considers Nicksick a friend, he “probably” won’t have him in his corner for future bouts.
Former UFC fighter Matt Brown discussed the situation during the latest episode of MMA Fighting’s The Fighter vs. The Writer, focusing on that public criticism from a coach can feel like a betrayal.
“First and foremost, we have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes,” Brown said. “There could be a million different things that we’re basing all this off—a couple of paragraphs. Who knows? That’s all we can base it off of, [the way] it looks. It’s unfortunate. I don’t think you should criticize your fighter publicly.”
While Strickland’s performance is open to critique, Brown believes Nicksick’s approach could have been handled better. He compared the coach-fighter dynamic to a personal relationship built on trust.
“A coach-athlete relationship is like boyfriend/girlfriend,” Brown explained. “You’ve got their back until you don’t when it’s all said and done. More like a marriage, I guess. It’s to the death. You’ve got their back, and you’re there for them. You’re not fighting for them. All you’re doing is giving your belief on what you think they need to do. They’re trusting you with that belief. It doesn’t mean they’re going to do it, or they have to do it, or they’re bad if they don’t do it, or there’s something wrong if they don’t do it. You don’t know what they’re going through. You don’t know what it’s like standing in front of someone trying to kill you, especially guys that have never fought.”
Brown also touched on a broader debate in MMA — whether coaches who have never fought professionally can truly understand what their fighters experience inside the cage.
“I try not to be overly critical,” Brown said. “I like guys like Eric Nicksick, but if you’ve never fought, you’re literally just giving an opinion. I think someone who’s fought, their opinion goes a lot farther. But it’s still an opinion. It’s like if you want to teach someone how to drive a car and you’ve never driven a car before. Do you really want to learn from that person? My 14-year-old son could tell you how to drive a car. He could teach someone how to drive a car, but do you want to learn from him? It doesn’t really make sense.”
Brown acknowledged that non-fighter coaches can still bring value to a training camp but believes that if they are going to strongly critique a fighter’s performance, they should have firsthand experience in the sport.
“I try not to be too much of a hater for guys who have never fought, because they can bring a lot of value to a camp, also,” Brown added. “But if you’re going to sit there and act like your opinion is so good, and your belief of what they did was so good, I hope you’ve at least fought before so you can say, ‘OK, I did that, and I believe that you should.’”
With Strickland’s future cornering situation now in question, it remains to be seen whether he and Nicksick will be able to mend their relationship or if he will seek a new coaching team moving forward.
