Alex Pereira and Sean Strickland did end up sparring with one another.
Pereira recently revealed that Strickland was going to Connecticut and the two were going to train and spar with one another. The Brazilian also planned to learn some trash talk and English from Strickland. Although the two are former opponents, both Pereira and Strickland seem kind to one another, and in the sparring video, the American made it clear to keep his hand up.
Of course, in their UFC 276 fight, Pereira caught Strickland with a hook that knocked him out. In the sparring video, it was noticeable that Strickland had his hand up the entire time to avoid the power shot. Although they weren’t going full-out, both Alex Pereira and Sean Strickland did land some good shots, as both learned quite a bit from each other.
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Alex Pereira is set to return to the Octagon in the co-main event of UFC 291 in Salt Lake City, Utah as he takes on Jan Blachowicz in his light heavyweight debut. The Brazilian is coming off a knockout loss to Israel Adesanya back in April at UFC 287 to lose the middleweight title. Prior to that, Pereira beat Adesanya by fifth-round TKO to win the middleweight title. To earn the title shot, he knocked out Strickland in the first round.
Sean Strickland, meanwhile, is set to headline UFC Vegas 76 on July 1 against Abus Magomedov. The seventh-ranked middleweight returned to the win column back in January with a five-round decision win over Nassourdine Imavov. Prior to that, he suffered a split decision loss to Jared Cannonier and was knocked out by Pereira.
Only time will tell if the sparring will help each other get their hand raised in their next fights. But, in the video, the two seemed to get along so perhaps this won’t be the only time Pereira and Strickland train with one another.
