According to Sean Strickland’s head coach Eric Nicksick, there was nothing fabricated about Strickland’s pre-fight hatred towards Khamzat Chimaev or their burying of the hatchet after their 25-minute battle.
Strickland regained the UFC middleweight title via split decision over Chimaev in the main event of UFC 328 this past Saturday in Newark, N.J.. There was a lot said in the build to the fight by both fighters, which led to extra security around them during fight week. That didn’t stop Chimaev from
kicking Strickland at the conclusion of the UFC 328 pre-fight press conference, and venom and vitriol continued to spew forth ahead of fight night.
However, before the fight began, there were multiple glove touches, and after the fight ended, the fighters embraced. Chimaev wrapped the title around Strickland, the new champion apologized for the way he promoted the fight, and it seemed as if the beef was squashed. That has led to discourse about if the rivalry was real, and the fight promotion itself.
Speaking with Nicksick, he says there was nothing fabricated about what was seen throughout the fight week, and how Strickland’s manager came up with quite the comparison to what fans saw between the two fighters in the aftermath.
“It was a beef,” Nicksick told MMA Fighting. “It was 100 percent a beef, and it’s funny. You and I talked about this. You asked me, ‘What do you hope happens after this?’ And I was like, ‘I hope they shake hands and they move on and maybe one day Khamzat’s back in the gym training with us again.’ That’s what I truly hoped for, but was I thinking it was realistic? Probably not.
“These guys didn’t like each other. And I hate to use this analogy, but I thought it was spot on by Lance, our manager, and I pause by saying this, but Lance said, ‘You know what this is? That’s post-nut clarity, and he’s spot on.
“It’s like, these dudes hated each other, wanted to kill each other, and then went 25 minutes, toe-to-toe, to a narrow split decision, just took years off of each other’s life. How can you not respect the guy across from you? At least for the 15 minutes or 10 minutes after the fight, there was at least some common ground there, and Lance looked over at me, he goes, ‘You know what that is? That’s post-nut clarity right there.’ I’m like, ‘Bro, you nailed it, man.’”
Despite how heated Strickland and Chimaev were towards one another, Nicksick says he and Chimaev remained cool throughout. In fact, Nicksick claims his team and Chimaev’s team ran into each other earlier in the week and it was nothing but respect between them, including Chimaev giving him a hug in the fighter hotel.
Nicksick saw the heightened security throughout, but that moment made him realize that things, for the most part, would remain professional throughout, and that fighting is such a weird and primal thing in the world’s landscape.
“It was super real until all the way up to, man,” Nicksick explained. “Those guys did not like each other. There was a lot of back and forth for years between those guys, so I think that’s the thing that people have to understand is, it’s competition. These guys, obviously, didn’t like each other in that moment, but they went out there and like, you’ve been in fights, right? You get in that fight in elementary school, and next thing you know, you’re shaking the guy’s hand.
“A lot of my best friends that I’m still friends [with] to this day, I probably fist fought. That’s how some of us even met. My best man at my wedding I got in fights with and we’re, ‘Oh, you’re my pal now.’ So it is what it is, man. And I’m actually glad that those two showed that type of sportsmanship knowing how much they hated each other. And I think it’s a good testament to everybody to know that, hey, they’re competitors, but at the end of the day, we’re also human beings and there’s respect that goes across the board when you spend 25 minutes in a cage trying to kill the other man.”
Strickland is now a two-time champion with another massive upset title win. At UFC 293 in September 2023, Strickland dominated Israel Adesanya to win his first championship, and did so as a massive underdog.
After a bit of a bumpy road between Nicksick and Strickland since his fighter’s loss to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312, the band is back together and they accomplished something amazing.
Nicksick was then asked if the title win over Chimaev was sweeter than the Adesanya win with everything in play.
“I wouldn’t say sweeter, just different,” Nicksick said. “They’re all very sweet… It’s like, you have three kids and you love every one of them, but they’re all different, right? You love them, they’re just all different. They’re all different chapters in your coaching career, in your fighting career and everything else.
“But this one definitely is special because of some of those ups and downs that Sean and I have had in the past. But I’ll tell you what… I don’t regret it because it made me a better person. It made me a better coach, and I think it made Sean and I closer.”
