“I think what makes Dricus so good is his unpredictability in the striking. Whereas Alex’s is used to a clean efficient style of striking,” said Eric Nicksick, Sean Strickland’s head coach on Alex Pereira’s involvement at his corner at UFC 312. The light heavyweight champion announced that he would be cornering Strickland in his middleweight title endeavor, but how much will his presence truly matter for ‘Tarzan’?

This question has been hovering above the MMA community since Pereira’s announcement and it appears that former UFC fighter, Brendan Schaub has the answer to it. Team Strickland will have to face a hard truth—despite Alex Pereira’s aura of a nemesis in fights, his presence will mean nothing to Sean Strickland, as they won’t even be able to communicate properly on the big stage.

While having a conversation with Bryan Callen on ‘The Fighter and The Kid’, Brendan Schuab highlighted that ‘Poatan’s presence at Strickland’s corner would only add to his glam and nothing else. 4

“Which doesn’t help at all because he doesn’t speak English. It’s fun to say—fun to say he’s in your corner and doesn’t speak English. But also, there couldn’t be a worse guy to mimic DDP than Alex Pereira,” said Schuab. Alex Pereira might be one of the best fighters to have ever embraced the Octagon but his conversation skills are battered, especially because he only understands Portuguese.

In addition to that, Schaub emphasized that Pereira is a technical fighter who catches his opponents with a very textbook approach. However, Dricus Du Plessis is an anomaly who is difficult to predict, “Alex Pereira is a very calculated, strategic, methodical striker. DDP is very unconventional, can’t be duplicated, stronger than Alex—just a completely different fighter. He’s a monster.”

 It would not be wrong to state that ‘Stillknocks’ is one of the most unconventional fighters in the current UFC roster, and Alex Pereira might not be a big help to Strickland in his second fight. However, ‘Tarzan’s coach believes that Pereira will be a useful asset to the team even though he doesn’t speak English.

Sean Strickland’s head coach rips apart critics on Alex Pereira’s involvement

Alex Pereira would be a godly addition to your team if you can convince him to train alongside you. If he stays in your corner, things might change for the better. However, many within the community would beg to differ, as they believe Sean Strickland would gain nothing from having Pereira in his corner. Well, Eric Nicksick appears to be in a mood to disagree with the critics who think this is a bad idea.

While having a conversation with the media, Nicksick was asked about Pereira’s linguistic limits, to which the head coach stated, “I’ve seen a couple of comments here and there [that Alex] doesn’t even speak English — he was in our corner for the [first] Dricus fight,” Nicksick explained. “He sat right behind me and he told me everything in my ear. ‘Hey, make sure he teeps more, make sure he jabs more.’

He further added, “We speak MMA, right? There’s enough for him to be able to say to help be a resource for us. And look, if we’re going to battle, who better to have in your corner than Alex Pereira? So I’ll take him in any capacity that we can get. But there’s a lot of deeper levels and layers of having him in the corner than just him just standing there, looking scary. So he’s going to help us a ton that during fight week and I’m excited to have him out there.”

It should be noted that Alex Pereira was in Strickland’s corner during his initial fight against Dricus Du Plessis. Although they faced defeat, it was a close fight, and that cannot be overlooked. Will ‘Poatan’s existence turn Sean Strickland’s fate at UFC 312 or will it be another victory for Dricus Du Plessis? State your thoughts in the comments below.