Sean Strickland had options after losing the UFC middleweight title, but ended up with Paulo Costa.
Strickland (28-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) faces Costa (14-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) in UFC 302 co-main event on June 1 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ But before the match against Costa became official, Strickland’s coach, Eric Nicksick from Xtreme Couture, revealed that UFC bosses mentioned the possibility of a confrontation with Khamzat Chimaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) before receiving a yellow card against Robert Whittaker in UFC on ABC 6.
“I know they were hoping for maybe Khamzat, but I don’t think Sean can travel to Saudi Arabia or anything like that – I’m not 100 percent sure,” Nicksick said in an interview with Sportskeeda. “But I know that Khamzat’s name has possibly been released. Khamzat is going to be a big draw in Saudi Arabia, and this fight is more about location than opponent, in my opinion.”
Strickland was campaigning for a rematch with middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC), who won the belt via split decision at UFC 297 in January.
Nicksick praised Du Plessis and said the South African reciprocated his interest in getting him back immediately, but the UFC had other plans.
“I found Dricus, man. I spoke to Dricus,” Nicksick said. “Dricus is a class act, man. I really enjoy talking to him. We talked about the fight, we talked about life, whatever, and they said they were asking Sean for a rematch.
“They were trying to get the rematch and they wanted to go in a different direction which would probably be Izzy (Adesanya), which is not a problem. I understand what the UFC is trying to do, but we need to focus on Paulo Costa, we need to get this victory and I think this puts us back in title contention.”
As for the confrontation with Costa, coach Nicksick predicts a late submission from Strickland in what will be a five-round fight.
“I think Sean can get him out of the fourth or fifth round,” Nicksick said.
For more information on the card, visit the MMA Junkie events hub to UFC 302.
