Coach: Strickland ‘Triggered’ By DDP, Using Bad Blood As ‘Motivation’

The bad blood between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis is going to sell extra tickets for their title fight at UFC 297 early next year, but it’s important that Strickland curbs his emotions ahead of his first official UFC title defense.

Nobody knew what to expect when Strickland and Du Plessis took to the stage for UFC’s “2024 Seasonal Press Conference” earlier this month (replay HERE). The two fighters hadn’t really exchanged words leading up to the presser so fight fans weren’t sure how things would unfold. As the two began to commit verbal warfare it was a comment from Du Plessis about Strickland’s abusive father that set their newfound rivalry into motion.

Following the press conference, Strickland and Du Plessis were inexplicably sat next to each other at UFC 296 in Las Vegas. Midway through the card they found themselves in a real fist fight in the crowd (see HERE). It provided UFC with some extra ammo to help promote Strickland and Du Plessis’ title fight at UFC 297, but it also confirmed the bad blood between the two fighters is real.

Strickland, who is one of the most outspoken fighters on the UFC roster today, was clearly bothered by the things Du Plessis said during the press conference. It’s unlike Strickland to get so emotional before a fight, but he was admittingly “triggered” by DPP. That provided Strickland’s coach, Eric Nicksick, an opportunity to further motivate the UFC middleweight champion and to make sure his head is in the right space entering his first title defense.

“There’s two sides to that coin: Sean has no problem saying what he says about everybody else, so people are going to probably poke and say things about him, as well,” Nicksick told MMA Junkie Radio. “I think it’s a tough row to (hoe), so you can’t get too emotional about those situations. They are just words, but at the end of the day, I did feel like he was triggered and there was a few days where it just kind of motivated him.

“The motivation was (already) there, believe me. But I wanted him to understand we need to have the right motivation. It didn’t need to be this infuriated guy going in there like, ‘I want to kill this guy,’ because that takes us out of our game. It takes us out of our element and what we’re good at. He’s been great ever since then. We had a good conversation about that, and I just told him I was proud of him.”

At the end of the day, Strickland is a technical fighter that beats his opponents with his durability and game planning. Giving into an emotional mindset for a clash with Du Plessis would not be a good idea for Strickland.

“I did say, ‘Hey, fighting emotional is not who we are,’” Nicksick said. “And stylistically, I think that favors Dricus more. It opens us up more, so we need to stick with our game plan and stick with what we want to do and don’t allow your emotions to take this over.”