Daniel Cormier understands Eric Nicksick’s frustration towards Sean Strickland at UFC 312, but disagrees with one thing.
Strickland (29-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) lost a dominant unanimous decision to middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC) in this past Saturday’s main event at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
Nicksick was bothered with Strickland’s lack of sense of urgency after being down in the fight, which led him to publicly say that he needs to evaluate what he wants to do in the sport. The Xtreme Couture head coach said he wants to coach world champions, and that’s what Cormier disagrees with.
“The only area that I think coach Nicksick was wrong was that I want to coach world champs,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Not everyone is going to be a world champ. You don’t get to coach all world champs. You coach world champions, you coach guys that might get to the Contender Series and lose, you coach guys that might get to an LFA title and that might be it.
“You might get a guy that comes to the UFC, has a cup of tea, 0-2, and he’s out. So, you don’t just get to coach world champions. I get the thought of what he’s saying, but not everybody gets there. Make that your goal, but I don’t know if publicly you say that. But any great coach will have words for their athlete.”
Strickland revealed that Nicksick will no longer be in his corner, but the pair will remain friends. Cormier finds that odd, even though he thinks Nicksick’s harsh criticism towards Strickland’s performance was warranted.
“I don’t blame coach,” Cormier said. “I think any great coach needs to judge their athletes fairly, but very harsh whenever they don’t compete to the ability that you expect them to because if you don’t, who’s going to? Especially in a world where most people are saying yes.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 312.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Daniel Cormier disagrees with Sean Strickland’s coach: ‘You don’t get to coach all world champs’
