Alex Pereira, a two-division champion, who defended his light heavyweight title recently, is looking to come back to middleweight. It will be for one last fight, against the champion Dricus Du Plessis, who’s also excited about the prospect of that fight. However, his former rival-turned-friend Sean Strickland doesn’t seem to be too happy about that decision.

Ever since Sean Strickland lost to Alex Pereira, they started training with each other, understanding each other’s fighting styles, and also becoming good friends in the process. As such, when he appeared in a recent interview, the interviewer had to drop the question about his thoughts on Pereira’s middleweight move. The first thing he revealed was that jumping from a lower weight class to a higher weight class is a much easier process, but it gets worse when cutting back to the previous one.

“As a welterweight that moved up to 185 [it works]. Once you get used to that weight class, the thought of going back down sounds miserable,” Sean Strickland told ESPN. Instead of dropping down, ‘Tarzan’ has encouraged Alex Pereira to fight Dricus Du Plessis in his weight class. This will create no hassles because even ‘Stillknocks’s coach claimed that they’re planning to move up to light heavyweight as well. It’s a beneficial arrangement for everybody involved.

“I think Alex should fight him [du Plessis] at 205 any day of the week. But yeah, I think Alex, any day of the week, says 205. 100 percent,” Sean Strickland added.

Now, there have been many fighters who’ve come down to a weight class before, so most people would think that may not be a big deal for Alex Pereira. Well, Sean Strickland recalled a worrying scene when he saw ‘Poatan’ during his last middleweight fight.

Sean Strickland reveals the worrying aftermath of Alex Pereira vs Israel Adesanya 2

UFC 287 has gone down in history as the day the UFC saw the crowning of the first 2-time middleweight champion in Israel Adesanya. For Alex Pereira, loss wasn’t the only thing he suffered that night. Sean Strickland, who was in attendance at the pay-per-view, shared an account of him meeting Pereira backstage, and he did not like the sight he saw.

The now-light heavyweight champion looked unwell due to the extreme weight cut, which prompted Strickland to advise him not to do this again. “I remember seeing Alex for his last [middleweight] fight in the back room… When he [did] the last middleweight cut, I walked to go say hi to him, and dude, he just looked like dead to a point where I’m like, ‘Man, this ain’t good for you, dude,” Sean Strickland stated.

While claiming that it’s good for his health to be at light heavyweight, ‘Tarzan’ also pointed out that it gets easy in the 185-pound category when Alex Pereira’s not around. “85, man. I can’t see him doing that. Luckily for us [smiles],” Strickland added.

Alex Pereira has always backed Dana White when the UFC CEO needed the most. So there is a chance he might oblige and give the light heavyweight champion his final middleweight fight. Regardless, what do you think about Pereira coming back to the middleweight division? Let us know your views in the comments below.