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Unlucky Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight
Alex
Perez has had more matches canceled than competed in his UFC
tenure.
In November 2020, Perez (24-6) became the first fighter off
Dana White’s Contender Series to earn a title
shot, facing Deiveson
Figueiredo atop UFC 255. Perez fell short by first-round
submission, and due to a series of unfortunate events, he has not
competed since that night. Perez has been booked against Matt
Schnell and Askar
Askarov numerous times, only for the fights to fall through
repeatedly. His latest tilt against Askarov, once scheduled for
July 16, is now off, according to Ag.
Fight on Wednesday night.
The promotion has adjusted accordingly, bumping Perez to UFC
277 in Dallas on July 30. Instead of Askarov, Perez will square
off against Alexandre
Pantoja (24-3) in a de facto title eliminator as well as a
replacement option should the interim title tilt of Brandon
Moreno and Kai Kara
France go awry. Perez has confirmed this new 125-pound booking
coming two weeks later on his Instagram page on
Thursday.
Perez is still looking to bounce back from that loss to Figueiredo
in 2020, as six different pairings have been scuttled for various
reasons from both Perez and his opponents since 2021. Whether due
to injury, fighters missing weight or other undisclosed instances,
Perez will be settling on his third opponent in this round robin of
fight booking changes. The aforementioned defeat to Figueiredo
snapped a three-fight win streak, that saw him beat Mark De La
Rosa on the scorecards, put Jordan
Espinosa to sleep with an arm-triangle choke and stop Jussier
Formiga with leg kicks.
“The Cannibal” Pantoja rides into this battle with two wins under
his belt in 2021, coming over Manel Kape
and Brandon
Royval. For the latter, he tapped Royval with a rear-naked
choke, thereby becoming the first fighter to submit “Raw Dawg” as a
pro. Since joining the promotion after Season 24 of “The Ultimate
Fighter,” Pantoja has only fallen short three times, all by
decision, to Dustin
Ortiz, Figueiredo and Askarov. On the upside, he has defeated
former champ Brandon
Moreno, knocked out Matt
Schnell and wiped out former title challenger Wilson Reis
in the first round on his way through the flyweight division.
UFC 277 goes down at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on July
30, and a massive rematch between champ Julianna
Pena and challenger Amanda
Nunes in the bantamweight division caps off the evening. The
co-headliner sees Moreno take on Kara France for the interim strap
at 125 pounds. Other fights likely featured on the main card
include a title eliminator at light heavyweight between Magomed
Ankalaev and Anthony
Smith, a heavyweight clash between Derrick
Lewis and Sergei
Pavlovich, and likely the Perez-Pantoja matchup.