Strickland says KO loss to Pereira might turn him to drugs and homelessness

Sean Strickland reflects on his knockout loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 276.

UFC middleweight Sean Strickland is a little bummed out following his knockout loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 276.

The defeat snapped a six-fight win streak for ‘Tarzan’ who was on the cusp of title contention and excited about the prospect of facing Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight championship following an entertaining back-and-forth with the champ at the UFC 276 pre-fight press conference.

Strickland is already back training at the gym, but the 31-year-old is struggling mentally and emotionally following the knockout. He joked that he might resort to drugs and homelessness if he can’t pull himself together in the coming weeks.

“You know Schmo, I’m going through some hard f-cking times, man,” Strickland, who was formerly ranked in the top five, told The Schmo in a recent interview (h/t Harvey Leonard of MMA News). “You see the beard, the hair, you know? I might start doing drugs, I might start drinking a little bit — live under a f*cking bridge. That’s kinda how I feel right now.”

Strickland was knocked out by the same left hook Pereira used to floor Adesanya at GLORY of Heroes 7. The 31-year-old bounced back from a previous knockout defeat to Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos in 2018 by stringing together six consecutive wins against Nordine Taleb, Jack Marshman, Brendan Allen, Krzysztof Jotko, Uriah Hall, and Jack Hermansson. He is currently #7 in the UFC middleweight rankings.