Newly crowned UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira admitted that his former opponent, American Sean Strickland, instilled fear in him minutes before the fight.
Strickland is a different person inside the octagon than his usual personality. When he walked into the octagon and started looking at me, he hadn't looked at me like that before. That's when I got scared. I thought, "This guy wants to kill me." But in the end, it's a good thing he came out to the octagon like that, because it woke me up, I realized the danger, I knew I couldn't be wrong. I said, damn it, he's different here, you've got to be more careful with this man. I did the smart thing and managed to catch him.
Alex Pereira in an interview with So Papos MMA
Pereira and Strickland fought at UFC 276, held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Pereira won the fight in the first round. On December 17, Strickland will face Jared Cannonier in the Octagon. Sean has 25 wins and four losses under his belt.
On November 13, at UFC 281, Pereira met with New Zealander Israel Adesanya in the Octagon. Alex won that fight by TKO in the fifth round. We should remind, that Alex had beaten Adesanya twice before by the rules of professional kickboxing. He has seven wins and one loss in mixed martial arts under his belt.