Strickland coach addresses Kape beef after manager incident

Sean Strickland's head coach has downplayed a backstage confrontation that triggered a social media war between the UFC middleweight champion and flyweight contender Manel Kape.

Eric Nicksick told MMA Fighting the dispute started after Kape's stoppage of Kyoji Horiguchi at UFC Vegas 119, when he and manager Ali Abdelaziz had what he described as a routine disagreement that got overblown. Nicksick, who coaches both Strickland and Kape at Xtreme Couture, said the manager grew defensive over issues unrelated to him, and the exchange spiraled from there.

Nicksick calls incident common in fight business

"Honestly, like we're brothers, man," Nicksick said. "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." He compared the incident to a married couple arguing at home, where nobody outside the house would typically notice or care — except this happened in a public setting and word spread fast.

Nicksick said Abdelaziz called him afterward to apologize and the two went to dinner. But the fallout reached his gym when Strickland and Kape began trading insults online, a situation Nicksick attributed to his own failure to step in earlier. "I need to be better at like mending those fences, too," he said, adding that Strickland has been training in Florida for two weeks and the atmosphere has been smooth since. Kape is reportedly nearing a flyweight title shot after his latest win.

Reported via:

• MMA Fighting — Sean Strickland’s head coach reacts to champ’s social media beef with Manel Kape after ‘not a big deal’ incident with manager