Sean Strickland’s head coach Eric Nicksick believes the now former champion would’ve gotten the victory at UFC 297 with a few tweaks.
Strickland dropped a split decision to new champ Dricus du Plessis in the main event of the UFC’s first pay-per-view card of the year in January. While it was one of the closest fights fans could watch, the Xtreme Couture head man explained what Strickland could’ve done better in the bout to weigh favorably among the judges.
“Win a little bit more of the optics battle, and people hear me [say that] over and over again,” Nicksick said on The MMA Hour. “Sean is death by 1,000 paper cuts when it comes to the jab, right? So, sometimes, certain judges might just see the same offensive technique over and over and over, and it might be doing a lot of the damage, it might be winning a lot of the fights, but the lead teep and the rear teep are something that we really were putting emphasis on in that camp for a number of reasons.
“One, because DDP had that, kind of like, step through juggernaut coming down the line, and that teep was going to negate a lot of that. ‘No, just get him off of your chest.’ No. 2, we wanted to try to wear on the gas tank of him, and by kicking him to his belly, that was going to allow for us to slow him down. The last thing, which was very important, is it gave another element of scoring to the judges to see, right? And even if it was just a kick to the body, or teep, it got away from the death by 1,000 paper cuts via jabs.”
Strickland, MMA Fighting’s 2023 Fighter of the Year, captured the middleweight title with a stunning lopsided decision win over Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 this past September. Du Plessis got the first crack at the championship, and Strickland delivered a great showing despite the loss.
While striking optics are one thing, Nicksick believes grappling and, more specifically, wrestling optics could have been a positive factor if they could go back in time.
“I think the other thing, too, that I’m always harping on Sean about is, man, this dude can wrestle,” Nickaick said. And I’m not asking him to take DDP down, but in those transitional takedowns, where we got taken down and Sean hit a switch, there’s opportunities for us to get on top. There’s opportunities for us to make that position, now, make him feel like, ‘Well, s***, I don’t know if I want to do that again,’ right? It’s like putting your hand in the cookie jar and no one slaps your hand.
“So when we got taken down, he got up without zero consequences. So you have to change that element in his mind. Right when I saw after the first round, 30 seconds, what did DDP do? [He] shot. Smart. He was trying to steal the optics of a close round. I’m going to score a takedown to try to sway it over my way. I said it to Sean right after Round 1. I go, ‘Hey, when you hear 30 seconds, you got to know that they’re going to try to offensive wrestle.’ In the second round? Did the same thing. It might have won [du Plessis] the round.
“So you have to understand that when you get taken down, and we get back to our feet, don’t be afraid to offensive wrestle there. Son’t be afraid to switch the tide a little bit. Don’t be afraid to crack this dude a couple of times and make him worry about coming back up. Because, again, it puts back in his head, ‘Well, maybe I don’t want to shoot anymore. That took a lot of damage coming back up there.’”
Strickland is now set to face one-time title challenger Paulo Costa at UFC 302, which takes place June 1 in Newark, N.J.
Nicksick was thoroughly impressed by Costa’s most recent appearance, where he dropped a decision to former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 298 in February. While Nicksick savors the matchup, he also understands that Costa is a very difficult puzzle to solve.
“I do [like it],” Nicksick said. “Man, Costa is a beast, though. This dude is a beast, man.
“[I’ve] cornered against him once with Uriah Hall. ... I thought he looked good [in the Whittaker fight]. It was like one of those where you watch ... I mean, to me, Robert Whitaker, skill wise, skill-for-skill, is the premier guy in that division. If there’s no Izzy Adesnaya, Robert Whitaker is the champ for a long time. So to perform as well as he did against Whitaker, Costa is a beast, and he’s back. Like, this dude, it’s going to be a tough fight.”
