Eric Nicksick reveals explosive details about issues with Australian govt. which almost led to Sean Strickland getting pulled from UFC 293 card

Sean Strickland's recent trip to Sydney, Australia marked the pinnacle of his fighting career to date, as he secured a remarkable upset by defeating middleweight champion Israel Adesanya via unanimous decision at UFC 293 this past weekend.

However, Strickland's visit to the 'land down under' was also fraught with controversies. The 32-year-old American stirred up trouble with the Australian authorities when leading up to his fight week, he made sexist remarks and went on a tirade about possible "dirty liberals."

'Tarzan' also claimed that he struck a man in the stomach at Bondi Beach after the individual insulted him.

Sean Strickland's head coach, Eric Nicksick, has revealed that the situation deteriorated to the point where the Australian government was reportedly considering replacing Strickland with Jared Cannonier, and they were strongly opposed to Strickland participating in UFC 293.

During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Nicksick stated:

"I thought we were gonna get pulled, I really did. So they went to the beach, and Sean basically incriminates himself during the fight week, he's like 'Yeah this guy comes up and I punched him in the belly'. And apparently the Australian government or whoever heard this. And it went downhill from there, it got to a point where they were flying John Crouch out from Arizona to come out and corner Jared Cannonier. When I heard that I was like 'Oh bro we are off, they gonna pull us form this card'."

He added:

"These guys probably didn't wanted Sean Strickland in this spot to begin with. It was probably pretty close to getting pulled, I don't know what changed or what happened behind the scenes."

Check out Nicksick's comments below:

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Eric Nicksick praises Israel Adesanya but believes he will require "more than minor adjustments" to defeat Sean Strickland in a rematch

Eric Nicksick praised Israel Adesanya's achievements but stressed that for a potential rematch with Sean Strickland, 'The Last Stylebender' would have to make substantial adjustments.

During an interview with MMA Junkie, Nicksick stated:

"I think Israel always deserves a rematch just from his history alone and his body of work. I think that kinda hearing their thoughts on, some minor adjustments and they can win a fight. I think it's more than minor adjustments. I think there's a lot more to be done but with that being said I still think Israel ranks up their No.1- No.2 best middleweights to ever do it. So if he wants to run it back, by all means I think that's a fight that needs to happen again."

Check out Nicksick's comments below: