Sean Strickland is back on top of the middleweight division, and coach Eric Nicksick has pulled back the curtain on the wild UFC 328 fight week that ended with Strickland defeating Khamzat Chimaev in Newark, N.J.
Strickland retained the UFC middleweight title over Chimaev after a week clouded by weigh-in controversy. Chimaev was the last fighter to step on the scale and was announced as making weight, but members of the MMA community questioned the speed of the commission’s reading and pointed to his rough appearance on the scale.
Nicksick made it clear the team was prepared to proceed no matter what happened at the weigh-ins. “Now, the whole weight situation. It’s not like, ‘Oh, he didn’t make the weight,‘ and this and that. People forget, I don’t know what Khamzat was getting paid, that’s 20 percent or 30 percent, that’s a big fine, that money goes into Sean’s pocket. That’s all we cared about was like, ‘Yo, we want that fine money. We want that tax, baby.’ Other than that, it is what it is.” He added, “We were going to fight regardless,” and, “He could have been five pounds over, Sean was going to take the fight regardless.”
Chimaev’s brother claimed Strickland had previously accepted a fight with Jiri Prochazka for a vacant light heavyweight title before the UFC switched to Chimaev, leading to a 46-pound weight cut. After UFC 328, Dana White said Chimaev wants to move up to light heavyweight, while Chimaev has called for a rematch with Strickland on social media multiple times.
For Nicksick, the next opponent is simply whoever the UFC names. “Well, let’s start off with this: He’s the 185-pound champ. That’s your division, right? So it’s either vacate of defend, simple as that,” Nicksick said. “If you’re vacating the belt, and moving up in weight, then by all means. But as far as I’m concerned, you’re the 185-pound champ, you have a duty to defend that belt, and you have a duty to be able to make the weight.”
“I don’t care. It’s not up to me. We’re f*cking mercenaries, man,” Nicksick continued. “At this point as a champion, it doesn’t matter. You have to defend the belt for whoever they call, so I don’t care who it is.” Nassourdine Imavov was mentioned as waiting for an opportunity in the middleweight division.
Nicksick also revealed Strickland’s fight week wasn’t smooth physically. Strickland suffered a shoulder injury on the Tuesday of fight week, then went 25 minutes with Chimaev and sustained nose damage in the title bout.
With the belt secured, the focus now turns to rest. “No timeline or nothing like that,” Nicksick said of Strickland’s return. Strickland plans to take a few weeks off, and his coach wants him to reset with his family. “Him and I discussed that a little bit. Even at the airport, its like, spend some time with your wife, invest back in your family. Anybody that’s been in this sport that has a family, they get it. They’re the ones that suffer the most.”
Nicksick has already set up some downtime with his champion. “So, I invited him out [to Los Angeles for Rousey vs. Carano] Saturday. He’s going to come out to Francis’s fight. He’ll come out with his wife and my wife. So it’ll be good cause he was a California guy and be able to spend some time with him and outside of fight camp, outside of the gym. But if I had my choice, man, I would like to see him maybe wait until September, October. Just take some time off and chill.”
Nicksick also plans to spend time with Strickland while they watch Francis Ngannou face Philipe Lins. Strickland is described as a California native, and Nicksick emphasized the strain that fight camps place on fighters’ families.
For now, Strickland stands as the UFC middleweight champion again, with his coach insisting the job is simple going forward: defend the belt whenever the call comes.
