Are Sean Strickland and Alex Pereira Friends? Exploring the Relationship Between the Two UFC Champs

Opposites, as they say, attract. And that is no more evident than in the case of Sean Strickland and Alex Pereira. The loudmouth, chaotic, and emotionally volatile ‘Tarzan’ stands in sharp contrast to ‘Poatan’s stone-faced, stoic, unemotional demeanor.

However, this has not stopped an unlikely but beautiful friendship and mutual respect blossoming between them over the years. And as Strickland gears up to face Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 tomorrow at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada, for his first title defense, let us take a look at the unlikely friendship between the two champions and how it came about.

Sean Strickland trains with ‘Poatan’ after being knocked out by him

Alex Pereira and Sean Strickland fought each other last year. Strickland, who holds a black belt in BJJ, refused to grapple with the Brazilian and chose to stand up and trade on the feet with Pereira. With ‘Poatan’ being one of the best strikers in the world, this backfired massively.

The former two-division Glory champion caught ‘Tarzan’ with a vicious left hook in the first round of their UFC 276 encounter in July ’22. Although a humiliating loss for Strickland, the American took the loss well and decided to start training with Pereira early last year. The Brazilian revealed he would be learning English from ‘Tarzan’ too.

The two even trained together before Strickland’s UFC 293 clash against then-champion Israel Adesanya, Pereira’s nemesis, who he had fought twice before Strickland. “I spent a few days training with Sean Strickland, and I got to see how talented he is, strategies, how tough he is. I got a better understanding from this training than from actually fighting him,” Pereira said.

‘Tarzan’, too, has spoken about how training with Pereira helped him improve his footwork, which, no doubt, would have helped him in his Adesanya fight. However, it appears that Strickland, currently in a committed relationship, may offer Pereira valuable insights into relationships following the Brazilian’s recent and unusual break-up.

Pereira ends things with girlfriend as she was married

Clearing up weeks of speculations, Alex Pereira announced he has broken up with his long-time girlfriend, Merle Christine. In an interview on Full Send MMA, Pereira claimed he had ended things with Christine when he found out she was still married. “It was a person I believed. I put her in my house, with my family. After all, I found out, she was married,” Pereira said regretfully.

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Christine, however, has come out and disputed the Brazilian’s claims, adding that she was the one who ended things with Pereira. Although she refused to go into more detail, she implied that it would not be good for Pereira if she were to go into reasons for their break-up.

What do you think about Sean Strickland’s friendship with Alex Pereira? Do you think the lessons he’s learned from Pereira will help him in his upcoming matchup against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297?

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