Alex Pereira showcased the power of his left hook when he dropped Sean Strickland to the canvas with it back when they fought at UFC 276 at middleweight. With just a few seconds beyond 2 minutes in the first round, the Brazilian champ dropped Strickland onto one knee with the hook and followed it up with a straight right that forced the referee to stop the bout and call the bout in Pereira’s favor. But did you know that Jamahal Hill had actually predicted it way before it all happened? Yes, the same Jamahal Hill who succumbed to the Brazilian’s famed left hook at UFC 300.

One of Hill’s Instagram posts has resurfaced and has been going viral on Reddit. The post shows Jamahall Hill’s chat with Strickland, where he broke down Pereira’s habit of setting up his powerful hook. He had written, “Yo [one] thing I notice about dude your fighting is he throws a 1,2 [combination] to setup a heavy hook to the ear!! I would use hammer blocks, not forearms, just my lil input.” 

However, ‘Tarzan’ seemed to have not listened to ‘Sweet Dreams’, which probably became the reason for his downfall against the man with the ‘hands of stone’. Proud of having predicted it all so perfectly, Hill took to Instagram and shared a screenshot of the chat and captioned, “Told y’all my IQ was on a different level, these dudes are so predictable. I know exactly what they gonna do. And I tried to warn my man…#UFC276 #IQ.” If Sean Strickland actually heeded Jamahal Hill’s warning and anticipated Pereira’s hook, would it have resulted in different outcomes? Ironically, ‘Sweet Dreams’ should have also seen the left hook coming at UFC 300, owing to his ‘high IQ’.

Going into the bout, Strickland was aware of the kind of power Pereira possessed, but still chose to stand right in front of him, in his face – like ‘Tarzan’ does with all his opponents. However, there might have been one way ‘Tarzan’ could have found the win against the two-weight Glory Kickboxing and UFC champion. Let’s find out how.

The only way Sean Strickland could have won against Alex Pereira at UFC 276

Despite losing to Pereira back in 2022, Sean Strickland put the rivalry behind him and actually trained with the Brazilian light heavyweight champion. Training at Texeira MMA gave the American fighter a chance to interact with Pereira’s coach Plinio Cruz, who revealed the only scenario where Strickland could have won against the ‘Poatan’. That scenario played out at UFC 287 when the Brazilian suffered his only KO defeat at the hands of Israel Adesanya. ‘Tarzan’ said, “For me to knock Alex out, he has to do something stupid, like what he did before, like what he did against Izzy. If you gave me one free shot and let me do everything I can, I’m going to knock him out. But if you try that with Alex Pereira, everyone else is going o sleep.”

So, will we get to see another showdown between Sean Strickland and Alex Pereira? Well, likely not at the moment because the only way for that to happen would be for the ‘Poatan’ to move back to middleweight and put himself through a grueling weight cut. The Californian doesn’t believe that would ever happen.

In an interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, he said, “I remember seeing Alex [Pereira] for his last fight [at middleweight] in the back room, and he looked like f–ing death. His last middleweight cut, I walked in to say hi to him and he just looked like f–ing death, like, to the point where I’m like, ‘Man, this ain’t good for you, dude, like, go up.’… Yeah, ’85, man, I can’t see him doing that, luckily for us [middleweights].”

Now, Sean Strickland is all set to take on Dricus Du Plessis in a rematch for the middleweight championship title at UFC 312. On the other hand, Pereira has been dominating the Octagon in the light heavyweight realm. A fight between ‘Tarzan’ and ‘Poatan’ seems unlikely unless the former moves up to light heavyweight. However, for now, both fighters are focusing on the titles of their respective division. Let’s see how the future plays out.

What do you think of Jamahal Hill’s warning for Strickland? Would the fight have played out any differently if ‘Tarzan’ actually listened to ‘Sweet Dreams’? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.