Sean Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick reveals private UFC 293 conversation with Israel Adesanya: “You saved that man’s life”

By Josh Evanoff - September 12, 2023

Sean Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick had an interesting conversation with Israel Adesanya following UFC 293.

Eric Nicksick and Sean Strickland

‘Tarzan’ and ‘The Last Stylebender’ faced off in the pay-per-view main event on Saturday. Entering the matchup, Sean Strickland was riding a two-fight winning streak but was a massive underdog. Luckily for the middleweight contender, Eric Nicksick did his scouting on Israel Adesanya.

In the main event of UFC 293, Sean Strickland turned in the performance of a lifetime against Israel Adesanya. After a back-and-forth first three rounds, he turned it on the championship rounds. After 25 minutes of action, the title changed hands by unanimous decision, with coach Eric Nicksick alongside his longtime student.

The coach recapped Sean Strickland’s win over Israel Adesanya in a recent interview with Morning Kombat. There, Eric Nicksick revealed that he actually spoke to ‘The Last Stylebender’ after the event. In the private conversation, the former champion gave credit to the coach, who had noticed all of his reads from the corner.

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Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya UFC 293

“There were some things I saw that Sean was doing that I thought Izzy was setting him up for,” Eric Nicksick stated recapping Sean Strickland’s UFC 293 win over Israel Adesanya. “It was kind of a cool moment. I had a talk with Izzy after the fight was over in the back. Izzy came up to me and was like ‘You saved that man’s life’, and I was like ‘Oh yeah, how so?'”

He continued, “He goes, ‘You kept calling out my reads’. I was like ‘Yeah, I saw what you were setting up’. One of the things was the southpaw drop-step. Orthodox Izzy, he drops back into southpaw, he would throw his southpaw cross, and Sean was parrying it. I yell at Sean ‘Bro, he’s going to same-side head kick you’.

“… I yelled it out and Izzy heard me yell it. He was like ‘Holy s*it, they’re calling out my reads.”

What do you make of these comments from Eric Nicksick? What did you make of Israel Adesanya’s loss to Sean Strickland?

This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM


Topics:

Eric Nicksick Israel Adesanya Sean Strickland UFC