Sean Strickland was impressed by Alex Pereira’s finish of Israel Adesanya at UFC 281.
Pereira (7-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) rallied to stop Adesanya by TKO in Round 5 this past Saturday at Madison Square Garden to claim the middleweight title. Strickland (25-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) felt Pereira’s power himself when he was on the receiving end of a left-hook knockout at UFC 276, but he expected Adesanya to have the footwork to evade Pereira’s power.
“He’s a f*cking badass, big motherf*cking Brazilian,” Strickland told The Schmo. “And he touches you, and you go to sleep. It’s the weirdest f*cking thing. He just touches you, and you f*cking fall asleep, but I was not expecting that. I was a little surprised. I thought Izzy was gonna be a twinkle toes and f*cking dance around and outpoint him, but f*cking hats off to you, Alex, you f*cking big ass f*cking scary Brazilian. You f*cking go out and f*cking do it.”
Strickland was finished by Pereira in Round 1. He admits he should have wrestled “Poatan” and thinks Adesanya should have attempted more takedowns.
“I should have wrestled,” Strickland said. “Izzy, you should have f*cking wrestled. What happened, man? Why didn’t you f*cking wrestle? Are you getting the same speech I got by everybody? ‘Hey, Sean why didn’t you wrestle?’ Because he’s a big f*cking Brazilian. I wanted to f*cking fight him, that’s why.”
Strickland returns to action Dec. 17 when he takes on former title challenger Jared Cannonier in the UFC Fight Night 216 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.