Alex Pereira saw Dricus Du Plessis put a beating of epic proportions on Sean Strickland up close and personal. After all, ‘Poatan’ was in Tarzan’s corner for his UFC 312 title clash against ‘DDP’, which the American former champ lost via a comprehensive unanimous decision. Strickland’s underwhelming performance after promising war has been the talk of the MMA town, with even ‘Tarzan’s coach Eric Nicksick trashing it. But what does the 205lbs god-king think of Strickland’s performance?

Well, not much, in both senses of the phrase. The light heavyweight champion, who isn’t one for many words, had a characteristically brief and anodyne take on ‘Tarzan’s loss. “Well, it’s a tough fight, we already knew, right? It was a similar fight there in the first. it was a rematch, right, but during the fight he got punched in the nose and, well, I think he had broken his nose. And then it made the fight more difficult for him,” Pereira told Australian businessman Mark Bouris in an interview in his native Portuguese.

Indeed, Strickland did break his nose in the fourth round after ‘DDP’ caught him with a devastating right. Remarkably, the American barely even reacted after breaking his nose, put it back in place, and just kept fighting. And Pereira feels that the fight was unwinnable for ‘Tarzan’ from that point on.

Apart from Pereira, Strickland’s performance did manage to turn some other heads as well. The Hall of Famer duo of Chael Sonnen and Daniel Cormier defended the former champ. During a media session ahead of filming The Ultimate Fighter 33, Cormier addressed the criticism head-on. “We are kind of piling upon this guy,” Cormier stated, calling out the harsh reactions. “It’s kind of crazy how much people are piling on, when, sure, he lost. But sometimes you get beat. You know what’s crazy? I get it. Some people can say, ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.’ Dude, sometimes it just doesn’t f—ing work. Your intention is to go out there and die, then some guy kicks your butt to the point you’re like, ‘F–k, man, I might actually have to die fighting this dude.’ And you’re like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ You have the right to pivot and turn.”

Sonnen backed him up, adding, “Yeah, did he do bad? I was proud of his efforts. Having your nose broken, it hurts bad. Breaking a finger or breaking a nose? Two small things, but I’ll just tell you, the pain is really immense, and to watch Sean reset it and stay in that fight – the math was already against him with the nose broke. He was not going to win that fight. He did not have the power, he was not going to find the guy and the math was against him. So he can stay out there for another 12 minutes taking an ass-whooping because it was honorable, or he could quit. He chose to stay in there and take an a-s-whooping.”

Not that the verbose American was doing much better before it. While Strickland was landing some jabs and a few good teep kicks on the South African, the latter was in control of every round of the fight- being more active and landing more big shots. Let’s shift our attention to the Brazilian juggernaut and his future.

Alex Pereira on the cusp of a massive potential crossover fight

These are interesting times for Alex Pereira. The light heavyweight champ is set to defend his title for the fourth time at UFC 313 next month against Magomed Ankalaev. The Russian at least on paper is a stylistic nightmare for him. After all, the Dagestani #1 ranked 205-pounder has some grappling skills while ‘Poatan’ has none. Many feel this means that Ankalaev will just take Pereira down and dominate him there. Whether or not it turns out that way will be pretty interesting to see.

But what has really excited Pereira fans is the prospect that he may box unified boxing heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in the near future. “That’s [a boxing match is] something that I really want… I don’t know how I would, but someday I would really like to do it. I’m the champ. I would like to fight the champ. So Oleksandr Usyk,” ‘Poatan’ told ‘Rampage’ Jackson in an interview.

To everyone’s surprise, Usyk responded to this call-out and revealed that he wants to box Pereira as his last fight before retiring. “Maybe a show fight with Alex Pereira. Maybe, why not,” the Ukrainian said. With both Pereira and Usyk on board, the only obstacle in the way is Dana White. ‘Poatan’ after all, is under contract with the UFC and would definitely need the promotion’s blessings, and perhaps even their co-promotion to make the Usyk fight happen. But will the UFC agree?

If it was someone else, the answer would have been a no. But since it is Pereira, the UFC’s golden boy who has stepped in repeatedly to save UFC cards, he may just get the green light. White may be a cut-throat businessman, but respect and loyalty go a long way with him. And the UFC CEO does know how to return a favor. What do you think about Alex Pereira’s take on Sean Strickland’s UFC 312 performance?