"This was handled in the weirdest way" - Chris Curtis weighs in on UFC pitting Sean Strickland against Alex Pereira

Chris Curtis is a close friend of Sean Strickland and thinks that the UFC is trying to build up Alex Pereira at his friend’s expense to pair ‘Poatan’ with the reigning middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya.

During his interview with Lowkick MMA, Curtis mentioned that Strickland is one of his training partners and that he will be in his corner for Curtis' upcoming fight against Rodolfo Vieira at next week’s UFC on ESPN: Tsarukyan vs. Gamrot. This led to the question about ‘Tarzan’ taking on Alex Pereira at UFC 276.

It seems evident that the UFC is targeting a clash between the Brazilian and Adesanya due to their history in kickboxing. The promotion is building Pereira up as a credible challenger by giving him fights against legitimate fighters like No.4-ranked middleweight Sean Strickland.

Chris Curtis said:

“It’s weird, you know, what’s happening. You know the fight they’re trying to make. But I just… They need Pereira to have a legitimate win. Like, who has he beat so far? Like Bruno Silva? There’s not a knock on Bruno Silva, but like you know, he’s unranked completely. I don’t know the first guy he fought… So they're really trying to get him a meaningful opponent but I think this was handled in the weirdest way.”

Curtis went on to state that the UFC perhaps miscalculated as they hoped that Pereira would avoid being knocked out by Strickland, but they’ve forgotten about his ground game prowess:

“I’m guessing they hope that Strickland can’t knock him out, because Strickland's, you know, not a knockout puncher. But people also forget that Strickland’s a jiu-jitsu black belt and ever since the Usman fight I’m telling you guys, like this dude has become one of the better wrestlers in the division. So I like think, they kind of rolled dice on the wrong stats...”

Watch Chris Curts talk about Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira in the video below:

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Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya met in a kickboxing ring

Alex Pereira’s main claim to fame is that he’s the only person to have scored a knockout victory over ‘The Last Stylebender.’ The Nigerian fighter competed in boxing, kickboxing, and MMA and suffered only one defeat of this nature.

The fight took place at Glory of Heroes 7 back in 2017. Pereira was able to knockout Adesanya with his left hook in the third outing. The bout was a rematch of their previous encounter, which was featured on the premiere edition of Glory of Heroes in 2016. That time the ‘Poatan’ won by a unanimous decision after five rounds of kickboxing action.

Watch the knockout below:

The UFC is currently working on pairing the two together inside the octagon. Interestingly enough, Pereira’s clash with Strickland will take place at UFC 276, which will be headlined by Israel Adesanya’s title defense against Jarred Cannonier. The event will take place on July 2, 2022, at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.