{"id":330524,"date":"2026-05-07T04:30:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=330524"},"modified":"2026-05-07T04:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:00:31","slug":"sean-strickland-opens-up-about-his-mixed-relationship-along-with-his-head-coach-ahead-of-ufc-328","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/sean-strickland-opens-up-about-his-mixed-relationship-along-with-his-head-coach-ahead-of-ufc-328\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland opens up about his ‘mixed’ relationship along with his head coach ahead of UFC 328"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Follow us on Google Discover<\/span> <\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Sean Strickland and his head coach proceed to have their differences ahead of his UFC 328 title fight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday night, Sean Strickland will look to place his last two title fights behind him when he challenges Khamzat Chimaev for the middleweight title within the UFC 328 essential event.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

The pair are extremely acquainted with one another\u2019s skillsets having previously trained together at Xtreme Couture under the tutelage of Eric Nicksick.<\/p>\n

The longtime head coach has been critical of Strickland over the past few years, and he criticized him earlier this yr for talking about previous training sessions with Chimaev.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/header>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

If Sean Strickland is in a position to stop Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s dominant wrestling, how much of a likelihood do you give him?\ud83e\udd14<\/h3>\n

Sean Strickland is believed to have the striking advantage over Khamzat Chimaev.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"Sean<\/div>
Sean Strickland has proved difficult to take down previously. Credit: Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Strickland says he and Nicksick have a \u2018mixed relationship\u2019<\/h2>\n

Following his second loss to Dricus Du Plessis last yr, Nicksick labeled Strickland\u2019s performance as \u2018uninspired fighting\u2019 which led to the pair having a giant disagreement.<\/p>\n

The previous middleweight champion then went on to fireside Nicksick following his comments, before re-appointing him for his UFC Houston fight earlier this yr.<\/p>\n

And regardless that the pair have seemingly reconciled since their disagreements, ahead of his title fight this Saturday, Strickland has admitted that their relationship is \u2018mixed\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Eric have a mixed relationship where it\u2019s like, I\u2019ll say this tactfully, should you\u2019ve never fought or been within the gym, you don\u2019t have an understanding,\u201d Strickland said during a UFC 328 media scrum.<\/p>\n

\u201cEric is a superb coach, he\u2019s a superb striking coach but should you\u2019ve never fought, you simply don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicksick doesn\u2019t have a background in competing in MMA and his journey into the game began following his college football profession.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Sean<\/div>
Photo by Jack Gorman\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Heading into his UFC 312 fight, Strickland went into it with a broken arm and he didn\u2019t tell his coach beforehand, which Strickland believes made Nicksick feel \u2018betrayed\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really talk much, I don\u2019t tell my problems to people so I believe Eric felt a bit of upset that I used to be going right into a title fight with a broken arm and he had no knowledge of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having seen \u2018Borz\u2019 and Strickland going at it within the training room, Nicksick is potentially one of the best coach for the previous champion to have behind him as he looks to reclaim his 185lb title.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/use><\/svg><\/p>\n
Join Our Newsletter<\/span><\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our greatest Bloody Elbow content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Follow us on Google Discover Sean Strickland and his head coach proceed to have their differences ahead of his UFC 328 title fight. On Saturday night, Sean Strickland will look to place his last two title fights behind him when he challenges Khamzat Chimaev for the middleweight title within the UFC 328 essential event. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":330525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[1127,835,12261,553,2937,3930,3931,3928],"class_list":["post-330524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ahead","tag-coach","tag-mixed","tag-opens","tag-relationship","tag-sean","tag-strickland","tag-ufc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330524"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330527,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330524\/revisions\/330527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}