Eric Nicksick admits mistake in publicly criticizing Sean Strickland's UFC 312 loss to Dricus du Plessis: “That was a miscalculation on my part”

MMA coach Eric Nicksick has been under fire as of late for his controversial comments on his fighter Sean Strickland's performance at UFC 312 over a week ago. Nicksick, who also coached other top-level fighters like former champions Aljamain Sterling and Francis Ngannou, heavily criticized Strickland's lopsided loss, even questioning his motivations.

While fans, fighters, and fellow coaches attacked Nicksick for his words, some took a softer stance, such as former UFC fighter Matt 'The Immortal' Brown. Brown, who has since become a coach after retiring, understood Nicksick's frustrations but made it clear that he disagrees with criticizing your fighters publicly (via mma fighting):

"I don't think you should criticize your fighter publicly"

Nicksick commented on the post with utter humility, saying:

"@iamtheimmortal I agree, Matt, looking back at it I made a mistake. My true intentions were to try and motivate him publicly, and that was a miscalculation on my part."

Eric Nicksick's comment. [Image credit: @mmafightiing on Instagram]

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What exactly did Eric Nicksick say about Sean Strickland's performance at UFC 312?

To fully grasp the seriousness of the criticism of Eric Nicksick, it's best to hear what he said exactly about his fighter. Appearing on the Ariel Helwani Show in the immediate right after UFC 312, Nicksick gave his honest thoughts on Sean Strickland's unanimous decision loss to Dricus du Plessis:

"I think he needs to evaluate what he wants to do in the sport. If it's just to make money, then that's great. Let us know. I wanna coach world champions so my motivations are different. I think that just to kind of show up and do that and not really back it up, to me, was just kind of uninspiring."

Check out Erik Nicksick's comments below:

Strickland responded to Nicksick's comments and, while he maintains a friendship with the MMA coach, 'Tarzan' insinuates that he'll unlikely have him as his cornerman moving forward. With Strickland's unorthodox and deceptively effective striking style, it would be interesting to see which coach he chooses to work with in the future.