“I Thought ‘This Guy Wants To Kill Me.’”

UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira has admitted he was scared to face Sean Strickland at UFC 276.

Pereira lately seize the UFC’s 185lb title, KOing long-time rival Israel Adesanya within the last spherical at UFC 281. Previous to that struggle, Adesanya was undefeated at middleweight, having cleared out the vast majority of the division. Nonetheless, Pereira has revealed that his struggle with Sean Strickland ‘scared’ him significantly greater than the bout with ‘The Final Stylebender.’

In a latest interview with So Papos MMA, ‘Poatan’ was open about his feelings within the construct to the struggle with Strickland, stating:

“Speaking about my final struggle, [Strickland] had 25 fights, was doing nicely within the UFC, ranked No. 4 within the middleweight rankings, he’s harmful, he’s skilled. I used to be scared, however once I heard him speak, I relaxed a little bit bit. He is an efficient fighter and an skilled one, however he was speaking some stuff that didn’t make any sense.”“

For a couple of months because the struggle was booked I had concern, but it surely was below management. However I’ll inform you once I was essentially the most afraid. The whole lot he mentioned and up till the weigh-in, all the things was wonderful. When he entered the octagon and began looking at me, he hadn’t checked out me that means earlier than. That was once I grew to become scared.”

“He’s one other individual contained in the Octagon, completely different from his regular character,” Alex Pereira continued. “I assumed ‘This man desires to kill me’ I’m telling you, this was a unique man from all the things else. However ultimately it was good that he entered the octagon this manner, as a result of it woke me up, I grew to become conscious of the hazard, I knew I couldn’t make errors. I mentioned rattling, he’s completely different in right here, you need to watch out with this man. I went in smarter and managed to catch him.” (H/T MMA Mania)

Alex Pereira was clearly in a position to overcome his concern, knocking Strickland out within the first spherical together with his signature left hook. It will be this very same approach that ‘Poatan’ would use to start the ending sequence towards Adesanya at UFC 281.

Now the UFC middleweight champ, regardless of solely holding a report of 7-1, Pereira is probably going set for a rematch with Adesanya, though the likes of Khamzat Chimaev are already calling out the brand new champ.