Sean Strickland seemingly fires Eric Nicksick from future cornering duty after coach criticizes his performance against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312

Sean Strickland recently addressed Eric Nicksick's comments about his performance against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312 and seemingly announced that his longtime coach won't be cornering him anymore.

For context, Strickland's performance against du Plessis in their rematch last weekend in Sydney was widely considered less than impressive. Despite 'Tarzan' promising fans a war against the UFC middleweight king, he failed to dent his opponent's armor and lost the fight via unanimous decision after five rounds.

In the aftermath, Nicksick slammed his pupil's outing as "uninspiring" and "very underwhelming" during an interview with Ariel Helwani. The veteran MMA coach also questioned Strickland's motivation to chase UFC gold and clarified that he wanted to work with fighters with the calibre to win championships.

In a recent X post, Strickland addressed his longtime coach slamming his performance publicly and claimed that he "probably" won't be cornering his fights anymore. He said:

"I like Eric. He’s a friend of mine and he’s going to continue to be a friend of mine. Will he probably be in my corner? Probably not. We have so many great guys at Xtreme [Couture], Nate [Pettit], Ray Sefo, we have so many savages that I would love to corner me."

Strickland continued:

"But that entire fight camp was just a struggle... We all f**king have excuses and they don’t f**king matter. The only reason I’m doing this video is Eric had to go do a f**king podcast and become an influencer so I’ve got to kind of explain myself."

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UFC icon defends Sean Strickland's performance against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312

UFC veteran Matt Brown recently shared his thoughts on Sean Strickland's performance against Dricus du Plessis and defended 'Tarzan' against critics. Brown questioned why Strickland would switch his fighting style in the championship rounds and called the American an "elite" fighter.

Speaking to MMA journalist Damon Martin on The Fighter vs. The Writer show, Brown explained his point and said:

"What I want to know is when did we start listening to what fighters say? Particularly what Sean Strickland says? He's an obvious good fighter, an elite fighter. What he has done has got him to where he's at. Why would you suddenly change it up and why would we expect him to suddenly change that up fifth round or fourth or whatever?"