Sean Strickland is bringing some additional firepower with him to Sydney, Australia this weekend in an effort to reclaim middleweight gold.
Within the primary event of UFC 312, Strickland will return to Australia to attempt to recapture the middleweight title from Dricus Du Plessis who defeated him back at UFC 297.
Each men might want to make adjustments for this fight due to how close their first encounter was but when there’s one thing will remain the identical, it’s the inclusion of one in every of the largest stars in the game within the corner of the American.
Alex Pereira made the walk with Strickland, his former opponent, last January and he’ll do it once more on February 8 despite the indisputable fact that his next light heavyweight title defense takes place next month at UFC 313.
‘Poatan’ is clearly there to support his training partner but there may be an ulterior motivation behind his allegiance with the challenger.
Sean Strickland says that Alex Pereira “hates” Dricus Du Plessis for some reason
In a fight week interview with the UFC, Sean Strickland revealed that Alex Pereira isn’t only motivated by lending his friend a hand this Saturday night.
The sunshine-heavyweight champion is an intimidating presence to have in your corner and that led to some transient but charming moments where he and Du Plessis caught one another’s attention within the aftermath of UFC 297.
Each titleholders have spoken in regards to the potential of moving up or down so as to secure a second belt but Pereira’s pursuit of the South African supposedly goes deeper than his quest for more gold.
Strickland said that ‘Poatan’ has taken a private disliking to ‘Stillknocks’ for a reason that he isn’t aware of and things don’t are likely to work out too well for you once you got on the champion’s bad side.
“I feel Alex is an indignant m———–. Like Alex is indignant and for some reason dude he hates Dricus. Like I don’t know what you probably did to him but he f—— hates you dude so it’s like the best way he looks at Dricus sometimes I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m fighting him dawg, prefer it’s me dude’.
“But yeah no, Alex just has that hate in his heart and he’s a very good dude so he’s on the market, I used to be like, ‘Let’s come on, let’s get it in’.”
Dricus Du Plessis and Alex Pereira could meet further down the road
Perhaps Alex Pereira will get the chance to share the Octagon with Dricus Du Plessis in some unspecified time in the future of their careers. Even when ‘Stillknocks’ is in a position to keep hold of the middleweight title this weekend, he definitely isn’t short on challengers at 185-pounds right away.
Pereira, however, might be trying to put together an excellent fight following his upcoming bout with Magomed Ankalaev next month but his intentions appear to lie at heavyweight over the rest.
It seems unlikely that it is going to occur anytime soon but you may make sure that if ‘Poatan’ really starts to push for it, whether it’s him going back right down to 185-pounds or defending his title against Du Plessis, the UFC will take notice.
