Sean Strickland’s coach, Eric Nicksick, has no problem admitting he doesn’t want to fight Alex Pereira again.
Strickland was knocked out by Pereira’s left hook at UFC 276 in 2022 after choosing to fight in the pocket with the former Glory kickboxing champion. A lot has happened since then, with Pereira winning the middleweight title, losing it and then winning the light heavyweight title, while Strickland also won the middleweight title in a major upset over Israel Adesanya before losing it in a close split decision to Dorricus du Plessis.
Du Plessis defended his belt against Adesanya by fourth-round submission last weekend at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia. While Strickland is adamant that he will fight for the title next, du Plessis has attracted the attention of many with his recent performances, including from Pereira, who has expressed interest in returning to middleweight to challenge du Plessis for the belt.
Nicksick was recently asked for his opinion on a possible rematch between Strickland and Pereira, and the Xtreme Couture head coach humbly admitted it’s a “nightmare” he doesn’t want to experience again.
“That was a nightmare,” Nicksick told Submission Radio. “Going through that again would be a nightmare. Just staying at 205. [pounds] Hey, just do it there. It’ll be fine.”
Strickland sparred with Pereira following his knockout loss and admitted that while he can get a touch on “Poitan”, the Brazilian’s power when he hits is on another level. Meanwhile, du Plessis’ coach, Morne Visser, is interested in a fight with Pereira, but it would likely be at light heavyweight.
Ahead of UFC 305, Dana White said Strickland deserved to face the winner of the main event. However, du Plessis said in his post-fight Octagon interview that Robert Whittaker deserved a title fight more than Strickland. Nicksick doesn’t deny that Whittaker has always deserved a title fight, but argues that Strickland deserves it more in comparison. Nicksick claims that du Plessis won a controversial split decision victory over Strickland, but knocked out Whittaker at UFC 290 last year.
“I think Robert Whittaker is always the guy who deserves a title fight,” Nicksick said, “especially when he’s winning the way he is. But when it comes down to it, if you compare the two opponents, I would say Dricus beat Robert Whittaker and he also won a very close split decision against Shawn Strickland. So I think the fans want to see it finish. I think Shawn has earned that right… Why fight Robert Whittaker or Khamzat? [Chimaev] Or I’ll fight other guys who have title fights coming up. If that’s the case, we’ll [next] You can specify the end of the year, the end of December, or any other time.”
