Despite a bumpy road for some of 2025, the band of Sean Strickland and head coach Eric Nicksick is officially back together.
Strickland is set to return to action for the first time in over a year when
he faces Anthony Hernandez in the main event of UFC Houston on Feb. 21. In his most recent bout, Strickland lost a lopsided decision to then-champ Dricus du Plessis in a middleweight title fight rematch at UFC 312 this past February. In a post-fight interview with Ariel Helwani, the Xtreme Couture coach called Strickland’s performance “uninspired,” and Strickland publicly said that Nicksick will “probably not” be in his corner” moving forward — which is something Nicksick accepted as long as his relationship with Strickland remained in a good place.
However, ahead of Strickland’s return to the octagon, Nicksick confirmed to MMA Fighting that he is returning to corner Strickland against Hernandez.
“Yes, sir, I’m there,” Nicksick said. “First and foremost, I think for me, there was a lot of learning experiences from that situation, lack of communication on both of our parts. But I was going through a lot personally with my dad’s health, and then traveling, and away from home, and all these things compiled into like kind of the way that I felt the complexion of the camp was and some of the injuries that Sean was dealing with. And it really just boils down to the fact that like we just got to be better at our communication with one another, you know, and that was it.
“And we talked about everything about a week or two after the fact. He knew where I was coming from. He knew the bottom line was. I just have a high standard of expectations for him, because I know what he’s capable of, and he knows that I love him and I care for him. We sat down and spoke it out like men, and we’re good to go. So I’ll be there in his corner. We have a very tough opponent in ‘Fluffy,’ I think he’s on an eight-fight winning streak, a guy that we had to corner against with Roman [Dolidze], and Fluffy came in there and did his thing. To me, watching him fight that night, I was like, ‘Man, this kid’s championship caliber.’ So, we’re up for the challenge and I’m looking forward to, to getting back with Sean and finishing what we started.“
Nicksick said their issues were squashed shortly after the fight, and it seemed like things were heading towards the direction of being back to normal. But with the unknowns of where Strickland would go next, being out for a year, and recovering from lingering injuries, you can never be sure until it’s time to form the corner roster.
The biggest blessing for Nicksick during Strickland’s long layoff has been his presence in the gym — helping fighters like Punahele Soriano, Edmen Shahbazyan, and Mansur Abdul-Malik end 2025 in impressive fashion.
“I mean, Sean, although he hasn’t had a fight, he’s been in the gym every day,” Nicksick explained. “He’s been helping everybody around the room. I think that’s where his and my respect for one another is very evident just because of how great of a teammate he is, how big of a hard worker he is. And same for me. I’m in the gym constantly.
“The last thing in the world that I would want is for Sean to go elsewhere, because he provides such a great value for the team, and I tell him that all the time. I wrote him last week [that] he keeps the standard high and holds everybody accountable, and as a coach, you need guys like that on your map. Not all of us as coaches should be the ones that have to police and run the gym the way that we want it ran. It’s up to the captains to do that, and Sean provides that for the gym, and so I’m very grateful that.
“We’re like brothers, dude.. We’re going to fight, we’re going to argue, we’re not going to see eye to eye on certain situations and scenarios, but, ultimately, we’re men. We sat down and we, we smoothed everything out and, you know, it was, it was all systems go from there.”
Strickland, MMA Fighting’s 2023 Fighter of the Year after winning the middleweight title against Israel Adesanya, is 1-2 in the octagon since winning that belt — losing twice to du Plessis, and defeating Paulo Costa via split decision at UFC 302 in June 2024.
Hernandez has looked like a world-beater, delivering a decision win over Brendan Allen at UFC Seattle this past February, and then an eye-opening finish over Dolidze at UFC Vegas 109 in August.
Nicksick, having cornered Dolidze in that fight and being quite familiar with Hernandez, knows that the stakes are high for Strickland, who likely needs a win to keep his championship hopes alive.
“This fight is chaos, right?,” Nicksick said. “You’re looking at two guys who move forward, who rely on their pressure, but also rely on their cardio in different styles. Fluffy is more of a grinder, he’s looking to get behind you, take you down, beat you up from there. Sean is more of a pressure fighter when it comes to being on the feet. It’s peppering you. They’re very similar in a lot of ways in their cardio and their attack and their approach, but different in regards of one likes to rely on wrestling, one likes to rely on the striking.
“So for us, it’s a matter of how do we keep the fight in our favor, and obviously, that’s to keep it on the feet, but also being able to counter wrestle. I think it’s going to be important. Meaning, some of the things I felt like we didn’t do well enough in the Dricus fight was hitting our switch, getting on top, and getting some ride time with damage to overcompensate, or overtake that takedown that Dricus had in the first fight.
“Dricus took us down, we would hit the switch, and then we would disengage. I was kind of wanting some more ride time cause Sean’s top side pressure is really, really good. So I think, in this fight, being able to nullify some of those takedowns, but also be able get our own ride time and then with our own solid ground up pound [is very important].”
