Sean Strickland had options after losing the UFC middleweight title but wound up with Paulo Costa.
Strickland (28-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) takes on Costa (14-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) in the UFC 302 co-main event June 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. But before the Costa match became official, Strickland’s head coach, Eric Nicksick of Xtreme Couture, revealed the UFC brass mentioned the possibility of a showdown with Khamzat Chimaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) before he was booked against Robert Whittaker at UFC on ABC 6.
“I know they were hoping for maybe Khamzat, but I don’t think Sean can travel to Saudi Arabia or something – I’m not 100 percent sure,” Nicksick said in an interview with Sportskeeda. “But I know Khamzat’s name was possibly kicked around. Khamzat is going to be a big draw in Saudi, and that fight is more about location than it was about the opponent, in my opinion.”
Strickland was campaigning for a rematch with middleweight champ Dricus Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC), who took his belt by split decision at UFC 297 in January.
Nicksick praised Du Plessis, and said the South African actually reciprocated interest in running it back immediately, but the UFC had other plans.
“I ran into Dricus, man. I talked to Dricus,” Nicksick said. “Dricus is a class act, man. I really enjoy having conversations with him. We talked about the fight, we talked about life, whatever, and they said that they were asking for the rematch for Sean.
“They were trying to get the rematch, and they wanted to go a different direction that’s probably going to be Izzy (Adesanya), which is no problem. I understand what the UFC is trying to do, but we need to focus on Paulo Costa, we need to get that win, and I think it puts us right back into title contention.”
As for the clash with Costa, coach Nicksick predicts a late finish by Strickland in what will be a five-round fight.
“I think Sean can get him out there by Round 4 or Round 5,” Nicksick said.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 302.
