Alex Pereira reacts to Sean Strickland beating Israel Adesanya

Former UFC middleweight champion and longtime rival of Israel Adesanya, Alex Pereira, reacted to “The Last Style Bender” losing to Sean Strickland in the UFC 293 main event on Saturday.

Adesanya and Pereira have quite the history.  They fought twice in kickboxing with Pereira defeating Adesanya in bouts.  After transitioning from kickboxing to mixed martial arts.  Pereira made his MMA debut in 2015 and made his way to the UFC in 2021.  After winning his first two fights with the promotion he was lined up with Sean Strickland.  He knocked Strickland out in the first round at UFC 276.  Following the loss, Strickland went and trained with Pereira.

With the win, Pereira was lined up for a title shot against his familiar foe, Adesanya.  He stopped Adesanya late in the fifth round to capture the middleweight championship.  Adesanya was given an immediate rematch and knocked out Pereira late in the second frame to recapture the championship.  

In Adesanya’s first title defense of he second reign, he took on Strickland on Saturday in Sydney, Australia and was soundly defeated.  He only won one round of the five-round match.  Prior to the fight, Pereira warned that Strickland had a style that could give Adesanya and picked the heavy under dog to win.  

Following Strickland’s championship win over Adesanya, Pereira went to social media with his reaction.  

“I told u guys – but nobody believed me!,” he wrote on X.  In a follow-up post Pereira said, “Seems like my plans to go down one more time to Middleweight ran out…”

I told u guys – but nobody believed me !
Congrats @SStricklandMMA 🏆. You deserve it !!!

— Alex “Poatan” Pereira (@AlexPereiraUFC) September 10, 2023

Seems like my plans to go down one more time to Middleweight ran out…

— Alex “Poatan” Pereira (@AlexPereiraUFC) September 10, 2023

Pereira couldn’t resist taking a few more shots at Adesanya for losing.  It seems like the rivalry is far from over.