Sean Strickland’s wrestling skills are far better than the public knows. It is evaluated as a weapon..
Sean Strickland’s wrestling skills are far better than the public knows. It is evaluated as a weapon enough to face Hamzat Chimaev, who reached the top of the UFC middleweight division.
“I know how good Strickland’s wrestling and ground skills are,” Strickland head coach Eric Nicky said in an interview with the U.S. MMA media “MMA Junkie” on January 29 (Korea Standard Time).
Nick Sick is the one who watched Strickland and Chimaev actually train together at the same gym.
사진 확대 Strickland. Photo =AFPBNews=News1 사진 확대 Strickland won the middleweight title match against Israel Adesanya and became the champion. However, after losing to Dricus Duplessi, he rebounded by beating Paulo Costa, but was defeated again by Duplessi, and he came down for a while. 사진=AFPBBNews=News1
Strickland (29-7, UFC 16-7) will face Anthony Hernandez (15-2, UFC 9-2) at the UFC Fight Night 267 main event at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on February 22.
If Strickland wins this game, he will have the right to challenge the title once again.
Strickland called Hernandez “American Chimaev” and evaluated it as an important test for future confrontations with Chimaev.
사진 확대 Hamzat Chimaev. 사진=AFPBBNews=News1
Nick-Sik also sympathized with this point.
“Everyone in the gym knows Strickland’s wrestling abilities,” Nicksik said. The problem is that we haven’t seen it often in practice,” he said.
According to Nick Sick, when Chimaev and Darren Till were training together, they were very helpful to the team. Nick-Sik recalled the time, “At first, it looked really good, but at some point, there was a strange atmosphere between the war of words on social media.”
Meanwhile, Nicksik admitted that Strickland also felt a strong regret for his student after the UFC 312 rematch, which was defeated by Driquis du Plessi.
However, he said that all the problems are now sorted out, and he will be in the corner of Strickland against Hernandez.
“In the training method, in the preparation process, we bumped into each other over what we needed to be better,” Nicksik said. Now Strickland has fully accepted it, he said. “What is more important than winning and losing is the preparation process and how much you are immersed in this game. He’s totally focused now. The same goes for the entire team,” he stressed.
사진 확대 Hamzat Chimaev. 사진=AFPBBNews=News1
Hernandez, like Chimaev, is a fighter with strong ground skills.
In response, Nick Sick presented a clear game plan.
“The first thing is not to go there,” he said. “We have to control the flow of the game and the pace,” Hernandez said. “The strength of Hernandez is return, pressure and ground and pound. If you stay there for a long time, it becomes a problem,” he warned.
“Even if you’re in that situation, the key is not to be around for a long time,” he said, adding, “That’s the most important point of preparing for this game.”
[Lee Geunseung, MK Sports Reporter]
