Sean Strickland’s coach breaks silence on Manel Kape feud. Sean Strickland’s head coach, Eric Nicksick, has downplayed the recent social media feud between UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland and flyweight contender Manel Kape,
The tension reportedly began after UFC Vegas 119, where Kape earned an impressive stoppage victory over former RIZIN champion Kyoji Horiguchi. Rumors soon surfaced about a backstage disagreement involving Nicksick and Kape’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, leading to speculation that the incident had fueled the online exchange between Strickland and Kape. Speaking with MMA Fighting, Nicksick dismissed the backstage incident as something that had been blown out of proportion.
According to Nicksick, the setting of the disagreement made it appear far more serious than it actually was. He compared it to a disagreement between family members, noting that conflicts happen but are usually resolved quickly.
The veteran coach also admitted that he could have done more to prevent the dispute from spilling over to his fighters. Since both Strickland and Kape train under his guidance at Xtreme Couture, Nicksick believes it is part of his responsibility to keep teammates united whenever tensions arise.
“Honestly, like we’re brothers, man,” Nicksick told MMA Fighting. “We’ve known each other for a long time. We’ve had arguments before in the past. It’s just unfortunate. He was upset about some things that really I had nothing to do with, so I was defensive and he was defensive, I didn’t even think anything of it, bro. It wasn’t that big of a deal.
“I know that, because of the setting, it got blown up more than it needed to be. But all in all, dude, we’re fine. It’s not a big deal. We smoothed it out real quick. Yeah, that was that.”
Nicksick was a bit surprised stories began circulating because of how commonplace it is in the industry. As far as their relationship, Nicksick says everything couldn’t be better between the two.
“It’s like getting in an argument with your wife, but you’re doing it in your house, and like the rest of the world doesn’t know about it, and then you’re like, all right, we’re good the next day,” Nicksick explained. “That’s typically what happens with all of our guys. Sean Strickland and Chris Curtis will be in here fighting all the time and whatever else, but we love each other and we have too much to lose, man.
“We have so many guys that we share and we’ve got Manel right on the cusp of a title fight. To Ali’s credit, man, he called me, he’s like, ‘Hey, dude, I made a mistake. I’m sorry I put you in that position. I love you, bro.’ We went to dinner. Everything’s fine.” Nicksick was asked how the relationship is between the two fighters, and ultimately points the finger at himself for not trying to mediate the situation with his athletes.
“I need to be better at like mending those fences, too,” Nicksick said. “I need to make sure that like… we’re all under the same roof. I coach both of those guys. If there’s an issue between those guys, then I need to step in and help mediate that stuff. But that all stems from some of that Ali stuff that really… when I look at a situation like that, I got to point the blame to myself and make sure that like all these guys are on the same page under the same roof, right? “So Sean’s been gone for like two weeks. He’s been in Florida, so everything’s been smooth.”
For now, Nicksick says there is no lingering bad blood. With Sean Strickland spending time training in Florida and Kape continuing his rise in the flyweight division, the coach is confident the controversy has already been put to rest.
Whether the online rivalry resurfaces remains to be seen, but Nicksick’s message was clear: what appeared to be major drama was, in his view, nothing more than a small disagreement that received far more attention than it deserved.
