Eric Nicksick explains why he’s returning to corner Sean Strickland for UFC Houston main event

Eric Nicksick will be back in the corner of Sean Strickland.

Strickland is set to headline UFC Houston on Feb. 21 against Anthony Hernandez in an intriguing middleweight fight. It will be his first fight since he lost a rematch to Dricus Du Plessis, which Nicksick called “uninspired,” which led to Strickland removing him from his corner.

However, ahead of his return fight, Nicksick confirmed he and Strickland spoke about it and confirmed the two are working together again.

“Yes, sir, I’m there,” Nicksick said to MMAFighting about Strickland. “First and foremost, I think for me, there was a lot of learning experiences from that situation, lack of communication on both of our parts. But I was going through a lot personally with my dad’s health, and then traveling, and away from home, and all these things compiled into like kind of the way that I felt the complexion of the camp was and some of the injuries that Sean was dealing with. And it really just boils down to the fact that like we just got to be better at our communication with one another, you know, and that was it.”

‘I know what he’s capable of’

Eric Nicksick said he knows just how good Sean Strickland is, which is why he said those comments. He also wants to prepare Strickland for Hernandez, which he knows isn’t an easy fight.

“He knew the bottom line was,” Nicksick said about Strickland. “I just have a high standard of expectations for him, because I know what he’s capable of, and he knows that I love him and I care for him. We sat down and spoke it out like men, and we’re good to go. So I’ll be there in his corner.

“We have a very tough opponent in ‘Fluffy,’ I think he’s on an eight-fight winning streak, a guy that we had to corner against with Roman (Dolidze), and Fluffy came in there and did his thing. To me, watching him fight that night, I was like, ‘Man, this kid’s championship caliber.’ So, we’re up for the challenge and I’m looking forward to, to getting back with Sean and finishing what we started.”

Sean Strickland is 29-7 as a pro and coming off a lopsided loss to Du Plessis. Before that, he beat Paulo Costa to return to the win column after losing his belt by split decision to Du Plessis.