Ahead of his pivotal middleweight matchup this weekend against Alex Pereira at UFC 276, surging division contender, Sean Strickland has questioned the striking style and prowess of the decorated kickboxer, claiming the Brazilian is not all he’s chalked up to be.
Strickland, who currently sits at #4 in the official middleweight pile, enters this weekend’s potential title-eliminator against Pereira in search of his stunning seventh straight victory, headlined a February event against Jack Hermansson last time out, narrowly taking home a split decision win.
As for Pereira, the Sao Paulo striker has made an instant impact in his UFC tenure since his November debut – landing a pair of impressive victories, however, has yet to enter the middleweight top-15 ahead of his catapulting against Strickland.
A former two-weight GLORY Kickboxing champion, Pereira, revered as one of the more dangerous strikers in the sport at the moment, handed credence to those beliefs, courtesy of a brutal second round flying knee knockout win against Andreas Michailidis at UFC 268.
Returning against compatriot and former M-1 Global middleweight champion, Bruno Silva, Pereira would eventually pull away from his fellow Brazilian with a technical display en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Sean Strickland downplays Alex Pereira’s striking ability
With either Strickland or Pereira expected to likely challenge division champion, Israel Adesanya should he defeat challenger, Jared Cannonier atop the UFC 276 card on Saturday, Strickland has downplayed the striking threat of Pereira.
“He’s (Alex Pereira) not even a good striker, bro,” Sean Strickland told assembled media during his media availability ahead of UFC 276. “Like f*ck, the only reason you can do that is because you are f*cking tall, you are genetically gifted. If you are a f*cking normal-sized f*cking human being, you wouldn’t even f*cking be here, your style sucks.”
Despite the fact Pereira holds a devastating one-punch knockout win over the aforenoted, Adesanya back in 2017 under the GLORY Kickboxing banner, Strickland insists that he’s less than worried about the Brazilian’s striking ability.
“He’s the thing, man – let me tell you something,” Sean Strickland said. “There’s not one f*cking GLORY kickboxer in any weight class that I f*cking couldn’t f*cking stand and bang with. So don’t f*cking tell me just ‘cause you’re some big f*cking Brazilian, who knocked out Izzy (Israel Adesanya) 20 years ago, that I can’t stand with you. Come on, motherf*cker, get out of here.”