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Xtreme Couture’s head coach Eric Nicksick had a hell of a 2023. He lead Francis Ngannou to a competitive split decision loss against Tyson Fury in boxing, and then helped Sean Strickland defeat Israel Adesanya to capture the UFC middleweight championship.
2024 is off to a rough start, though: Strickland just lost the belt in his first title defense against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297. It was a close fight: a split decision that Sean came within one point on one scorecard of winning. In Nicksick’s mind, his student should have won.
“The fight was close,” he wrote in an Instagram post Sunday morning. “Close fights mean we needed to win the optics battle. Live, I had us winning 1, 2, and 5, but all that matters are the three [judges] cage side. I’ll watch it again, to see where we / I can be better. Much love to everyone who supported us. On to the next!”
(from a headbutt?) probably didn’t help either.
The two judges that scored the fight for Du Plessis had Strickland winning just rounds 1 and 5. Dissenting judge Sal D’Amato had Strickland winning round 3 as well. None of them handed round 2 to Strickland, despite it being the round where his jab started to seal up the eye of “DDP.”
Nicksick also had some kind words for Du Plessis and his team.
a show of mutual admiration and appreciation, considering the two were brawling in public a mere month ago. That’s the healing power of mixed martial arts on display. After five hard rounds, there’s nothing much left but respect.
