Sean Strickland is staying busy while waiting for his title shot

No. 1 middleweight contender Sean Strickland is still waiting for the UFC to announce his next fight. But he’s not sitting idly by.

Strickland is spending his free time in Salt Lake City training with UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. The Brazilian kickboxer announced that Strickland would be joining his training camp in a video posted to his YouTube account.

“We have a good team,” said Pereira, who is set to defend his title against Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307. “Glover [Teixeira], Plinio [Cruz], Yousri [Belgaroui], Cesinha [Almeida], Sean Strickland will be with us here next week.”

Perhaps Strickland is repaying Pereira for helping train him for his UFC 293 title fight against Israel Adesanya. Or maybe the two buds worked out a deal in which Strickland helps Pereira train for Rountree in exchange for Pereira ending his pursuit of Dricus Du Plessis.

Both Strickland and Pereira have held the middleweight title. The two fighters have similarly intriguing cases for who should try to take the belt currently fastened around Du Plessis’ waist.

Strickland lost the belt to Du Plessis in his first title defense. The close fight ended in a split decision that some believe should have gone Strickland’s way.

Pereira knocked out Strickland en route to taking the middleweight belt from Adesanya. However, Adesanya took the title back in the immediate rematch, and Pereira jumped up to light heavyweight, leaving unfinished business in his old weight class.

For the next week, though, Strickland and Pereira are teammates.