Sean Strickland says that Alex Pereira hates
Dricus du Plessis šāFor some reason he hates Dricus. I donāt know what you did to him,
but he f***ing hates you dude.āš„ @ufc
#UFC312 #UFC
#MMApic.twitter.com/WIRKpdOwtUā Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS)
February 4, 2025
Sean
Strickland believes Alex
Pereira isnāt especially fond of Dricus Du
Plessis.
Strickland will try to reclaim the middleweight title against Du
Plessis in the main event at UFC 312
on Saturday at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. The
former champ is training with foe-turned-friend Pereira leading up
to the fight.
According to Strickland, āPoatanā has hatred toward Du Plessis,
though the source of that animosity is unknown.
āI think Alex is an angry motherf—er,ā Strickland said at UFC 312
media day. āLike, Alex is angry and for some reason he hates
Dricus. I donāt know what you did to him. But he f—ing hates you,
dude. The way he looks at Dricus sometimes, Iām like, āDude, Iām
fighting him dawg, itās me dude.ā Alex, he just has that hate in
his heart but heās a good dude.ā
Du Plessis hasnāt seemed too concerned that Pereira will be in
Stricklandās corner on Saturday. The champ has previously noted
that Pereira was also in Stricklandās corner when he dethroned the
American at UFC 297 last year.
Du Plessis has since defended his title against Israel
Adesanya at UFC 305 this past August. Pereira issued an
immediate callout to āStillknocks,ā teasing a return to
middleweight. However, that move did not become a reality, and
Pereira is scheduled to defend his 205-pound belt against Magomed
Ankalaev at UFC 313
in March. Meanwhile, Strickland was awarded a title shot after
rebounding from the loss to Du Plessis with a split-decision
victory over Paulo
Costa.