“Fighting emotional is not who we are” - Coach claims Sean Strickland “triggered” by Dricus du Plessis before UFC 297 title clash

Eric Nicksick knows that Sean Strickland cannot fight angry at UFC 297 to complete his first successful title defense.

In an interview with MMA Junkie, the XTreme Couture head coach broke down recent conversations he had with his champion regarding their upcoming title fight with Dricus du Plessis.

Nicksick acknowledged the emotion Strickland felt at the UFC 2024 seasonal press conference but spoke with his fighter on not 'fighting emotional.' In the interview, Nicksick said:

"I (told him), 'Hey, fighting emotional is not who we are. Stylistically, I think that favors Dricus. It opens us up more, so we need to stick with our game plan and stick with what we need to do.'"

Nicksick would continue to also acknowledge that Sean Strickland's personality will tend to draw out similar trash talk from his opponents in many future fights. The coach said that Strickland has been 'great' since their conversation and has since calmed down from the anger he felt at the December press conference.

Although Strickland does not tend to fight recklessly in the cage, he has shown emotion in the past and a habit of deviating from game plans. The champion said numerous times ahead of UFC 293 that his training had prepared him to wrestle against Israel Adesanya, but he would attempt zero takedowns in the fight.

The American's negative feelings toward Dricus du Plessis caused him to attack his future opponent in the crowd at UFC 296.

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The history of Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis' bad blood

With a knockout win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290, Dricus du Plessis was slated for the next middleweight title fight against Israel Adesanya. However, with Strickland upsetting the champion, Du Plessis will instead challenge for the belt against the American.

The two fighters did not have any bad blood between them when the fight was initially scheduled, but everything changed at the 2024 seasonal press conference. There, the two middleweights would engage in trash talk culminating with Du Plessis angering Strickland by claiming that 'every memory you have (of your dad beating you) is going to come back' during the fight.

The following day, Sean Strickland would leap over the Gilbert Burns family to attack Du Plessis at the final UFC event of 2023.