Top middleweight contender Sean Strickland has faced the music after being well and truly humbled by Alex Pereira at UFC 276.
The controversial MMA star claimed his opponent's striking ‘f****** sucks’ ahead of the latest UFC pay-per-view event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas only to be knocked out by him inside three minutes.

Pereira, who is a decorated kickboxer and twice beat Israel Adesanya before both men transitioned to MMA, dropped Strickland with his signature lead left hook midway through the first round.
As the American tried to get back to his feet he ate a straight right hand that knocked him back down to the floor and brought an end to the fight.
After being humbled at UFC 276, ‘Tarzan’ took to social media to react to the devastating defeat and give props to his opponent who had clearly earnt his respect.
“Well, that sucked. You never want to be someone’s highlight, but that’s the game we play. I tried to stand and bang with one of the best kickboxers,” Strickland said in a video posted to Instagram.
The 31-year-old thought he was doing well in the fight against one of the best strikers in MMA before getting his lights turned off by the Brazilian.
“The s****** part about it was, during the round, I kept thinking, ‘Man, this is going to be an easy fight. I see everything this guy’s throwing, I’m getting the better of the exchanges. I’m going to beat this guy up for three rounds.’

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"And then halfway through, I got caught. Hat’s off to Alex. He’s a f****** killer.”
Strickland added that he is going to take some time to reflect on his first middleweight loss before getting back in the gym and back in title contention.
“Thank you to all my coaches. I’m sorry we didn’t get the win," he said.

"It’s depressing. I’m going to go be sad for a while. And fans, thank you for supporting me. On to the next one. It’s time to climb up the ladder again.”
Pereira’s impressive knockout win over Strickland seems to have been enough to earn him the next crack at Adesanya, who defended his title against Jared Cannonier in the UFC 276 main event.
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