Strickland Addresses His Corner Situation After UFC 312

Sean Strickland is considering significant changes to his coaching staff following his loss to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312. In a recently released video, he responded to criticism from his longtime coach, Eric Nicksick, who described Strickland’s performance as “very underwhelming” and “uninspiring” during an interview with Ariel Helwani. Strickland hinted that Nicksick is unlikely to be in his corner moving forward.

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

Struggles Leading Up to the Fight

Strickland revealed that his training camp for UFC 312 was far from ideal. He dealt with a broken arm, which required stem cell treatment in Colombia just weeks before the fight. In addition, he suffered from a staph infection that further complicated his preparation.

“This is not an excuse, but the entire camp was just a struggle of telling myself, ‘I’m good, I’m good,’ while knowing I wasn’t. I was in Colombia eight, seven weeks out, getting stem cells on a broken bone. Again, the bone healed fine—no excuses—but it’s something that lingers in the back of your mind.”

During training, Strickland aggravated the injury while sparring with former ONE champion Reinier de Ridder.

“I was training with that submission guy, Reinier de Ridder. He hit me with a whizzer, and my arm was already broken. I thought it snapped completely.”

In addition to physical setbacks, Strickland also faced visa issues that were only resolved a week before the fight. This prevented some of his cornermen from traveling with him to Brazil.

pic.twitter.com/vflbCX75a8

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) February 12, 2025

Fighting Through Adversity

Despite these obstacles, Strickland refused to pull out of the fight. He entered the octagon determined to push through, even as his injuries and setbacks weighed on him.

“I broke my nose like three times in that round, and every time, I just reset it and kept fighting.”

He also acknowledged du Plessis’ performance, giving credit to his opponent for a well-earned victory.

“Nothing against Dricus, he came in and fought his ass off. Broke my nose—hell yeah. Hats off to him, he fought like a man.”

What’s Next for Strickland?

With the loss at UFC 312, Strickland has now dropped two of his last three fights. However, he made it clear that he doesn’t fight for titles alone but for the love of the sport.