Alex Pereira, as a fighter, has faced both Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland. As a former world champion in two different sports, Pereira has a wealth of experience having seen both highs and lows. The Brazilian fighter secured the middleweight crown last year with a knockout victory over ‘Tarzan,’ followed by a win against ‘Stylebender.’ However, he lost the title in the subsequent rematch at UFC 287. Interestingly, Pereira was one of the few, or perhaps the only one, who had predicted Sean Strickland’s victory over Adesanya, and this prediction came true yesterday.

As Strickland secured the victory against Adesanya. Pereira celebrated it by stating that his prediction was vindicated. However, ‘Poatan’ recently took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his opinion of how shallow the MMA pundits are and how they don’t respect or acknowledge something that goes against their predictions. The former Glory Kickboxing champion pulled no punches as he went after the so-called MMA experts.

Alex Pereira criticizes MMA experts for failing to acknowledge Sean Strickland’s victory over Israel Adesanya

The 36-year-old Brazilian fighter had engaged in a fierce rivalry with Israel Adesanya long before their UFC journey began. Alex Pereira has studied Adesanya inside out as an opponent during their rivalry. Pereira and Adesanya have faced each other four times, with ‘Poatan’ winning thrice (twice via finishes). He also gave the KO treatment to Sean Strickland to earn his first-ever UFC title fight.

Speaking from experience, Pereira had predicted that Strickland could upset Adesanya in their fight. And that prediction proved accurate. Knowing his opponents well enough, he was confident in giving Strickland a chance to pull off the unthinkable at UFC 293.

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Further, Pereira trained with the 32-year-old and was honest about how Strickland bested him during the sparring sessions, despite their fight going the opposite way. A straight arrow by nature, Pereira did not take kindly to the ‘experts’ hesitating to give Strickland his flowers even after he beat an all-time great middleweight at UFC 293.

Pereira’s disappointment with the experts was obvious as he stated “ Talking about the fight yesterday- everybody gave their opinion before the fight, but I didn’t see any “MMA expert” who gave Sean the credit he deserved! NOW everybody is having excuses, they weren’t right this time. It’s the minimum they can do. Sad is, this guy never change.”

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However, Pereira himself took the initiative once more and announced the coronation of the new middleweight king. In a heartfelt tribute, ‘Poatan’ congratulated Strickland on becoming the third UFC middleweight champion in eleven months.

Alex Pereira’s wholesome message to Sean Strickland post UFC 293

Shortly after UFC 293, Alex Pereira took to his YouTube channel to congratulate his training partner for his feat. Pereira said, “I want to congratulate Sean Strickland. He did an amazing job and I’m really happy for the change in the division’s champion. I think Sean’s time has come and it’s not likely that another [to take it away].”

Pereira had previously predicted Strickland’s win over Adesanya. Prior to the Strickland vs. Adesanya fight this month, Pereira was in Australia. When he was interviewed by sports journalist ‘The Schmo’, he was asked a question about the fight between Strickland and Adesanya.

In his customary stoic manner, Pereira made his case in Portuguese, which was later translated by Glover Texeira.“ But he’s saying like Adesanya is definitely a very uh strong fighter and [it is] very hard fight for Strickland. But Strickland is at the top right now. At the top guys, Strickland is the one to have more chance to beat Adesanya,”

As the outcome of the anticipated match is out, fans and critics got to see a new side of Strickland, and with newfound support from Alex Pereira, it will be interesting to see how far can Strickland go with his new title. What do you think about Sean Strickland’s win over Israel Adesanya? Tell us in the comments below.

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