Alex Pereira: "The American dream" - Sean Strickland reacts to Alex Pereira saying he'd recruit him for bank heist

"The American dream" - Sean Strickland reacts to Alex Pereira saying he'd recruit him for bank heist

Modified Mar 07, 2025 02:40 GMT

Sean Strickland, Alex Pereira — Sean Strickland (left) reacts to Alex Pereira for saying that he'd rob a bank with him. [Images courtesy: Getty].

During the media day before his fight against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313, Alex Pereira said that he'd choose Sean Strickland to accompany him for a bank robbery, drawing a reaction.

Strickland and Pereira are often seen training together and are known to be friends. 'Poatan' was also in Strickland's corner in his recent high-stakes middleweight title fight against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312.

The 37-year-old Brazilian signed off 2024 with three successful light heavyweight title defenses and returns to the octagon on Saturday for a high-octane title showdown. In a pre-fight media interaction, a reporter asked Pereira about the three fighters he'd bring to rob a bank. Pereira named Strickland among his picks for the hypothetical heist:

"Glover [Teixeira] to drive and definitely Sean Strickland"

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Check out Alex Pereira's comments below:

Strickland posted the Brazilian's statement on his Instagram stories while reacting to his former rival. He praised Pereira for overcoming adverse conditions to become one of the biggest stars in the UFC:

"The American dream. Raised a family, worked in a tire shop then became the biggest name in sports... All the respect to this man."

Alex Pereira's comments [Screenshot courtesy: @stricklandmma on Instagram]

When Sean Strickland shared his experience of sparring with Alex Pereira

Sean Strickland and Alex Pereira once faced each other at UFC 276. The fight didn't end well for Strickland, who was knocked out by 'Poatan' in the first round. Pereira has witnessed a meteoric rise since then and became the champion in two different divisions of the UFC.

The pair left their rivalry behind and are now in a good place with each other. Strickland once shared his experience of sparring with Pereira during an interview with The Mac Life:

"I can spar Alex and I can go point for point and you know I could hit him, I could kick him, but the difference is the man touches you, and you just die."

Check out Sean Strickland's comments on Alex Pereira below (0:02):

About the author

Holding an M.A. degree in political science, Imran worked as a columnist for different dailies of J&K for six years before joining Sportskeeda as an MMA writer in 2023.
He finds Jon Jones’ career inspirational and has ‘Bones’ at the very top of his GOAT list. The other MMA fighters in his Mt. Rushmore are Georges St-Pierre, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, and Valentina Shevchenko.
Imran became an MMA fan after watching Brock Lesnar TKO Frank Mir at UFC 100 in July 2009 to avenge a submission defeat to Mir one year earlier.
He is of the opinion that MMA is the world’s premier combat sport, which has overtaken boxing due to its burgeoning fan base and fights where the best challenge the best. He also likes the fusion of various disciplines in MMA. That said, Imran feels that the sport can still do better in terms of compensating fighters.
While writing his new pieces, Imran looks to garner research from reliable sources and avoid bias in his reporting.
When he’s not immersed in MMA, you will find Imran reading books, writing, watching interesting web shows, or listening to rappers like Tupac, Nas, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar.

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Edited by Jigyanshushri Mahanta