Sean Strickland and Khamzat Chimaev have both said they are ready for combat at UFC 328—in or out of the octagon—and Strickland’s head coach Eric Nicksick hopes sanity will prevail before the cage door locks.
Chimaev puts the middleweight title on the line against Strickland in Saturday’s headliner in Newark, N.J. Throughout the build, things have gone from who beat who in sparring, to UFC CEO Dana White saying the two fighters won’t be allowed in the same hotel before the fight, to both fighters saying they will be ready to scrap, and possibly do worse, if things get heated during fight week.
Nicksick was asked about the potential of a possible pre-fight brawl, and if he believes it could actually happen.
“I mean, they’re not gonna make any money doing it that way,” Nicksick told MMA Fighting. “It’s like, you guys have a fight for money, you both are prizefighters, go make your money. I hope it’s quite the latter. I hope that, they fight, but may the best man win, and maybe eventually we can all get back to training with each other once again. So that’s my look at it.”
Strickland earned his shot with a sensational performance and finish against Anthony Hernandez in the main event of UFC Houston in February. He looks to become a two-time champion in the matchup.
Nicksick was asked if there was a bit more fire to Strickland in preparation for the fight with things being so heated in the build between the two fighters.
“Not really,” Nicksick said. “I think business as usual. There’s probably a little bit more heat behind it because of the bulletin board talking and everything else. But, for the most part, I think it’s business as usual for Sean in this fight.”
Chimaev captured his first title with a lopsided decision win over Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 this past August. “Borz” is undefeated inside the octagon, with impressive performances at both middleweight and welterweight.
Nicksick says his dealings with Chimaev over the years have been great, and they’ve even talked since the fight was booked with both men going out of their way to send good blessings the other way. However, the two are on opposite sides of the cage Saturday night.
“My experiences with him have only been wonderful, to be honest with you,” Nicksick said. “He’s very giving with his knowledge, especially when he was in the room. There’s a lot of things that we try to pick up on that he was doing that I think has helped our game a ton. Ironically, Francis [Ngannou] is using some of that stuff today in practice, So my experiences with him have always been great.
“I think we’ve always maintained a friendly relationship and unfortunately, this is a fight we have to compete against each other, but other than that, it’s all respect on my end and we have a job to do. I’m not the one going in there to fight, man. I just got to go in there and execute a game plan.”
Nicksick said the good thing about the title fight being booked so soon after Strickland’s win is that his fighter remained in great shape, and Strickland didn’t have the time to “balloon” up. Additionally, there were some similarities to the game plan coming off of the Hernandez fight, especially with the insane pace and grappling prowess “Fluffy” typically brings to the table.
While some things are similar, Nicksick sees a glaring difference in Chimaev’s game compared to Hernandez.
“I think Khamzat’s a much different striker, stylistically, than Fluffy,” Nicksick said. “Khamzat uses stance switches a lot in motion. He’ll drift to southpaw. He has a real good head inside double out of south. He has a really good kicking game. There’s a lot of other things offensively that I think Khamzat does differently and maybe a little bit better that we have to incorporate into this camp.
“And I think that’s why it’s nice having Johnny Eblen in because Johnny’s well versed in all aspects of MMA and a world-class wrestler in his own right. So that’s kind of why we brought him into camp and I thought he would be a great addition to help us.”
While Xtreme Couture has had some big moments, and multiple world champions being crowned, Nicksick was asked what a Strickland upset win would do for him, his fighter, and the rest of the competitors and athletes in the gym, especially with Strickland being one of the main leaders in the room.
“I think it’d be huge, especially it being Khamzat and knowing that this is an undefeated fighter that really no one’s had, in my opinion, a chance to try and beat him,” Nicksick said. “So for us to be able to go out there and beat a guy with his stature, I think he’s top three, top four in the world right now, it’d be huge for everybody, man, especially for Sean.
“We know that our guy has the capabilities and the attributes to be able to go out there and do that.”
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