UFC 296 was wild, even outside the cage, with Sean Strickland going all out on Dricus Du Plessis. The middleweight champ had it up to here with Du Plessis’s antics, and just launched himself at him while in the stands. The whole combat sports scene went nuts, and now the hype for their showdown is sky-high. But Strickland’s coach is cooking up a different angle on the whole thing.

After the brawl, Du Plessis and Strickland immersed themselves in their training routine. Now, Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick has reacted to the brawl and commented on the upcoming one. Let us see what Nicksick’s initial reactions were and why he wants Strickland to be as calm as possible at UFC 297.

Eric Nicksick wants Sean Strickland to replicate UFC 296

During a conversation with John McCarthy and Josh ‘The Punk’ Thomson on ‘Weighing In,’ Nicksick claimed that the first thing he messaged Sean Strickland as soon as he got to know about the brawl was whether they won or not. “The whole thing went off, and the first thing I wrote him, I just text him like, “Did we win?”

Nicksick further explained that Strickland’s actions are not wrong but he needed to get his mind together and use technique to defeat Du Plessis in their actual fight. He even cited the Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington bout as the prime example of staying calm to win the fight.

He said, “Then, that same night, I wrote him and I said, ‘Hey man, just remember that this is what this guy wants. He wants us to fight him to his style of fight, which is chaotic, and bringing you out of your element because you want to k*ll this guy, takes us out of our defensive standards and everything that we worked so hard for.”

He continued, “So, I think when you saw that same exact fight that night… when you watch Leon Edwards fight Colby Covington and take the emotion out of it after what was said, and watch him dismantle that man for 5 rounds, I made that to a full point. Look what happened when Leon hurt him to the heart, right?… That dude wanted to k*ll that motherf****r… but he fought him smart, he fought him tactically and that’s the same approach we need to have on January 20,” said Nicksick.

Meanwhile, another interesting development was made by Du Plessis during a recent interview. Apparently, Dana White asked him to press charges against Strickland if he wished to. Why would the CEO knowingly put his UFC 297 main event in jeopardy? Let’s dig into it.

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Did Dana White want Strickland to be out of the race?

While having a conversation with MMAJunkie, Du Plessis emphasized that Dana White was the one who advised him to take action against Strickland but he has not taken any action against the champion. “I know Dana came to me and said, ‘Listen, this is the case. We’re really sorry about this. Obviously, the police had him and charges can be pressed because that’s assault. It’s outside of a professional arena,'” said Du Plessis.

He further added, “They didn’t try to convince me otherwise at all. They literally said, ‘If you feel like that was uncalled for, we completely understand if you want to press charges and take this further.’ I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no. Please no.’ We are two fighters. It was a good old scrap like we did before we became professionals. I just paused and was like, ‘I would even take the blame if that’s possible, just to make sure that nothing happens to him.'”

Despite initial expectations, the upcoming bout appears to be one that will be more closely contested. It could either crown a new champion ͏or establish Strickland’s status as the new king ͏of the middleweight division. Which lot are you picking?

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