Sean Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick has given his thoughts on his student’s wrestling ahead of his next fight.
In his next outing, Sean Strickland will go head to head with the in-form Anthony Hernandez in the main event of UFC Houston. It has the potential to be one of the best middleweight fights of the year, but as we know, Sean can be a bit hot and cold when it comes to the drama of his fights and the style he implements.
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For Strickland, this is all about proving that he can still hang with the truly elite middleweights. He’s done it numerous times before, and he’s even been a world champion. If he can get through Hernandez, and do so convincingly, it’ll raise some eyebrows about what he could do against Khamzat Chimaev.
In a recent interview, his coach Eric Nicksick gave his thoughts on the wrestling prowess of Strickland.
Strickland’s coach on possible Chimaev fight
“Everyone in here knows how good Sean can wrestle and his ground game. Unfortunately we don’t see it as much as we’d like in a fight. …
“I think there’s a lot of backstory there with Chimaev being out here and training with us. He was a huge asset to the gym and the team when he and Darren Till came out. It was funny because those guys really hit it off and then all of a sudden, they were going back-and-forth on social media for this buildup.”
“Some of the things Sean and I were butting heads on were things that I think we needed to be better at as far as the training, the drilling, the preparation, and he’s bought in,” Nicksick said. “At the end of the day, wins and losses are going to come and go, but to me it’s a lot about our preparation and how invested we are in preparing for these types of fights. Man, he’s been all in. Not only has he been all in, so has the team.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
Will Sean get the job done in his next outing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, BJPENN Nation!