If anyone thought the bad blood between Sean Strickland and Khamzat Chimaev heading into UFC 328 was just promotional theater, Eric Nicksick says that couldn’t be further from the truth.
After Strickland reclaimed the UFC middleweight title with a razor-close split decision win over Chimaev in Newark, a lot of fans were left confused by what happened after the final bell. The same two guys who looked like they genuinely wanted to rip each other apart all fight week suddenly showed mutual respect, embraced, and appeared to squash the entire feud on the spot.
That led plenty of people to question whether the hostility was ever real in the first place.
According to Strickland’s head coach, it absolutely was.
“It was a beef,” Nicksick told MMA Fighting. “It was 100 percent a beef, and it’s funny. You and I talked about this. You asked me, ‘What do you hope happens after this?’ And I was like, ‘I hope they shake hands and they move on and maybe one day Khamzat’s back in the gym training with us again.’ That’s what I truly hoped for, but was I thinking it was realistic? Probably not.”
Fight week definitely backed that up.
Security had to stay close because of how heated things got, and tensions boiled over when Chimaev kicked Strickland at the end of the pre-fight press conference. By all appearances, these two legitimately couldn’t stand each other.
Then came the fight.
Five brutal rounds later, everything changed.
Nicksick says Strickland’s manager Lance came up with the perfect explanation for what fans witnessed afterward.
“These guys didn’t like each other,” Nicksick said. “And I hate to use this analogy, but I thought it was spot on by Lance, our manager, and I pause by saying this, but Lance said, ‘You know what this is? That’s post-nut clarity, and he’s spot on.
“It’s like, these dudes hated each other, wanted to kill each other, and then went 25 minutes, toe-to-toe, to a narrow split decision, just took years off of each other’s life. How can you not respect the guy across from you?”
Crude analogy aside, the point makes sense.
There’s a certain respect that comes from surviving a war with someone.
Nicksick also made it clear that while Strickland and Chimaev were at each other’s throats, things between the camps were much calmer. He says he actually had respectful interactions with Chimaev throughout the week, including getting a hug from him at the fighter hotel.
That helped reassure him things wouldn’t spiral too far out of control despite the obvious tension.
“It was super real until all the way up to, man,” Nicksick explained. “Those guys did not like each other. There was a lot of back and forth for years between those guys, so I think that’s the thing that people have to understand is, it’s competition.”
He also pointed out that combat sports create weird dynamics most people outside fighting don’t fully understand.
“You get in that fight in elementary school, and next thing you know, you’re shaking the guy’s hand,” Nicksick said.
Fair point.
As for the title win itself, this marks another massive championship moment for Strickland, who already shocked the MMA world once by beating Israel Adesanya for the belt.
But Nicksick says this one hit differently.
After some well-documented tension between coach and fighter following Strickland’s loss to Dricus du Plessis, their relationship had its rough patches.
Now they’re champions again.
“I wouldn’t say sweeter, just different,” Nicksick said. “They’re all very sweet… It’s like, you have three kids and you love every one of them, but they’re all different, right?”
For Nicksick, the road back may have made this one more meaningful in a different way.
“But this one definitely is special because of some of those ups and downs that Sean and I have had in the past,” he said. “But I’ll tell you what… I don’t regret it because it made me a better person. It made me a better coach, and I think it made Sean and I closer.”
At the end of the day, whether fans believed the rivalry or not, Nicksick’s version is simple: the hatred was real, the respect became real too, and five rounds in the cage changed everything.
