Sean Strickland isn’t expecting much from Alex Pereira when the light heavyweight champion corners him this weekend against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312. But Alex likes Sean and hates Dricus, and that’s enough for Strickland to be on board.
Strickland and Pereira have been regular training partners since “Poatan” knocked “Tarzan” out in 2022, and while the Brazilian was too busy with business obligations to play a big part in Strickland’s camp for Du Plessis, he’ll lend his intense energy (and maybe his ‘magic powers’) to the American when he fights in Sydney on Saturday.
Some have asked why Pereira would undertake the exhausting trip to Australia when he has his own big fight in March to prepare for. According to Strickland, hatred for Dricus Du Plessis may have something to do with it.
“I think Alex is an angry motherf—er,” Strickland said during UFC 312 media day. “Like, Alex is angry and for some reason, dude, he just hates Dricus. I don’t know what you did to him, but he f—ing hates you, dude. The way he looks at Dricus sometimes, I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m fighting him dawg, it’s me dude.’”
“Alex, he just has that hate in his heart and he’s a good dude and he’s out there, so he’s like ‘Yeah, come on, let’s get in.’”
Strickland clearly holds Pereira in the highest regard despite (or specifically because of) the communication barrier.
“He doesn’t speak English … me and Alex, we’ve never really talked to each other,” he told Michael Bisping. “We spar all the time, but we’ve never really had a conversation. It’s just like, ‘Chama!’”
“Americans, Australians included, we’re a bunch of f—ing p—ies. English too. We grew up on McDonalds and Disney Channel. This motherf—er grew up in the Amazon, in a tire [shop]. He knows what child labor is. You motherf—ers don’t know what that is.”
“You know, Alex has all the money,” Strickland said in another interview. “He came to America, the land of free. He’s not gonna get robbed in Rio. He has no reason not to be happy. He should be happy. He gets all the women, has all the sports cars. But he harbors so much hate in his heart, and a part of me respects that because it takes a real man to not become soft because of money.”
After all the talk, we’re still not sure what Pereira brings Strickland in Australia outside of the power of friendship. Will that be enough for Sean to take his belt back from Dricus Du Plessis? Will Alex look Sean in the eyes coming into the fifth round and say ‘Chama,’ igniting a fire under the American’s ass that earns him the win? You’ll have to tune in to UFC 312 on Saturday night to find out.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
