Sean Strickland knows it will be declared as excuses, but he just wants to explain what happened prior to UFC 312.
The first signs Strickland (29-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) might not be in peak condition for this past Saturday’s middleweight title rematch with Dricus Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC), which he lost by unanimous decision, came up during fight week when images of staph infection on his arm were discovered.
Strickland downplayed it as an issue when asked at the pre-fight press conference, but it has since been revealed that he had a case of the virus several weeks prior to UFC 312. That was just one of the problems he had to navigate throughout training camp, because Strickland said he also experienced an arm injury that he described as a break.
“This is not an excuse, but that entire camp was a struggle of, ‘I’m good,’ (but) knowing you’re not good,” Strickland said in a video on his social media. “I was in Colombia like eight weeks out, seven weeks out getting stem cells on a broken bone. Bone healed fine, not an excuse, it just kind of weighs in the back of your head. I was training with (Reinier) de Ridder, the submission guy, and he hit me with a whizzer, and it was already broken, but dude, I thought my arm f*cking snapped.
“I was like, ‘I’ve got to go to f*cking Colombia, this is f*cked.’ All camp this is just in the back of your head and you’re just telling yourself, ‘I’m f*cking good.’ … But all camp, whether it be the staph infection, the broken arm, the having to get a VISA that didn’t get approved until a week (before), not knowing if I will get cornermen out there. This entire camp was a struggle of like, ‘I’m not good.’ But look in the mirror and say, ‘Sack up.'”
Strickland, 33, reiterated multiple times throughout his four-minute video that he was not attempting to make excuses. However, he felt compelled to explain some of the context around his training camp after his longtime Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick offered a public criticism of his performance.
Nevertheless, Strickland said he intends to push forward in his UFC career (seemingly without Nicksick in his corner), and do what’s necessary to improve his game after failing to regain the belt.
“Nothing away from Dricus – he came in there and f*cking fought his ass off, broke my nose,” Strickland said. “Hell yeah. Hat’s off. You fought like a f*cking man. But I don’t fight to put belts on the wall, I don’t f*cking fight because Eric wants to go do a fancy podcast. That’s not why I fight. Before fighting I had the lowest self-esteem, couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror. I don’t know what dignity was when I first started fighting and though fighting, I’ve learned so much. I’ve met so many amazing people.
“… I’ve got a lot of fights left on my contract. I love fighting. I’m going back to the gym and working my ass off and I’m starting from f*cking square one. And that’s just how life is. You’ll always get a step back where you’re like, ‘All right, I’ve got to start all over again.’ And you make a choice to either sack up and you f*cking do it, or you quit. And I’m going to sack up and do it.”
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