Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira on tap for UFC 277

Alex Pereira wanted a major step up in competition and has been provided such in the form of a fight with Sean Strickland at UFC 277.

Pereira (4-1 MMA), a former GLORY kickboxing champion, made his highly anticipated Octagon debut last November at UFC 268, where he scored a sensational knockout victory over Andreas Michailidis (see that here).

‘Po Atan’ followed that up with another impressive performance earlier this month at UFC Vegas 50, where he picked up a unanimous decision victory over Bruno Silva.

Following that fight Alex Pereira called out top ranked middleweight contender Jared Cannonier. While UFC officials did not grant him the current #1 ranked contender at 185lbs, they did provide him the next best thing by matching him up against Sean Strickland.

That news comes courtesy of ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, who reported that Pereira and Strickland have verbally agree to throw down at UFC 277 this summer.

Super interesting matchup in the works for UFC 277 on July 30 … Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira is verbally agreed to, per sources. Has the look of an all action fight on the feet. No official location for this card yet. pic.twitter.com/jBK8Kylayf

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) March 26, 2022

Sean Strickland (25-3 MMA) picked up his sixth consecutive win at last month’s UFC Vegas 47 event, defeating Jack Hermansson by way of split decision.

Although he kept his winning streak intact, Strickland was not happy with his most recent performance.

“I probably shouldn’t say this and no disrespect to Jack he’s a warrior… but I feel like I didn’t even try this fight.. Like I was treating it like a low level sparring match.. very disappointing… let the pressure get to me… won’t happen again..” – Strickland wrote on Twitter.

If Alex Pereira can defeat Sean Strickland on July 30th, he will be in prime position to once again throw down with current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

Pereira and Adesanya have a storied history having collided twice under the GLORY kickboxing banner. The Brazilian emerged victorious in both of those matchups, the second of which came via a nasty knockout (left hook).

Who do you think will emerge victorious when Alex Pereira and Sean Strickland clash at UFC 277?