Eric Nicksick Admits That Publicly Criticizing Sean Strickland Was a Mistake

Eric Nicksick is owning up to his mistake.

Nicksick recently admitted that criticizing friend and pupil Strickland in public was the wrong decision. Strickland received a lot of criticism in general for his lopsided unanimous decision title loss against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312 earlier this month. Nicksick later called Strickland’s effort uninspiring after failing to motivate the former champ to push harder until the end of the fight.

However, UFC veterans like Daniel Cormier and Matt Brown didn’t approve of Nicksick publicly denouncing Strickland. While recently commenting on the issue, Brown noted that there might be a lot more to the whole thing than is visible to the public eye. Regardless, Brown thinks the relationship between a coach and fighter is too personal for their differences to be publicly exposed.

Responding to Brown’s comments, Nicksick admitted to having a made a mistake. While the Xtreme Couture head coach says his real intention was to motivate Strickland, he admits that it was a miscalculation.

“I agree, Matt, looking back at it I made a mistake,” Nicksick commented on an Instagram post highlighting Brown’s comments. “My true intentions were to try and motivate him publicly, and that was a miscalculation on my part.”

Responding to Nicksick, Brown clarified that he was just expressing his opinion.

“Understood,” Brown wrote. “It’s not really my business .I’m just responding to questions asked of me about the news of the day. Unfortunately, this was the news of the day.”

Nicksick said the former UFC welterweight’s opinion is really valuable to him.

“Matt, you're an absolute legend and you know your opinion is important to me,” Nicksick wrote. “I appreciate that the first thing you said was, “T'here's probably more to this…' And whether you agree or disagree with me, real friends will tell it like it is because we care!! Respect!!”

Strickland also openly expressed his disappointment with Nicksick’s comments, even stating that his longtime coach might no longer work his corner even if they continue being friends. Strickland lost his strap to Du Plessis via a close split decision at UFC 297 last year and earned a title rematch with a split decision win over Paulo Costa.