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“You feel like at any moment Francis could just [throw a punch] and knock his lights out if he wants to but Francis, to his credit, he’s done a really good job of keeping his sparring partners intact,” Nicksick said. “That’s been the challenge a lot of times having Francis in your gym is keeping guys alive and around that can give him the rounds that he needs. So I usually have a ‘hey, don’t break your toys’ and he’ll ease off.
“The rounds between him and Sean are actually very competitive. Sean gets in there and gets after it and Francis will entertain him if you will and not knock him out. There’s some great rounds and credit to Sean, not everybody is champing at the bit to hop in the cage with Francis.”
All of that serves as the example that Strickland has set since joining Xtreme Couture and Nicksick couldn’t ask for anything more out of him.
“He wants to compete and he wants to compete against the best in the room,” Nicksick said. “If there’s somebody better than him in the room, he’s going to ask for that round. He wants to compete. He wants to see where he needs to get better. You’ve got to give him credit.”