Prepare for a dance-off before, after or even during the
matchup.
The fourth Ultimate Fighting Championship card of
September was announced by ESPN
Knockout’s fighter-turned-commentator Gaston
Reyno, who declared on social media on Friday the first pairing
slotted into
UFC Fight Night 289. The event, which will likely also be
titled UFC Vegas 121, will go down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on
Sept. 26. That matchup, which is not expected to be the main
attraction, comes at 135 pounds between Norma
Dumont (13-3) and Ailin Perez
(13-2). The Argentinian has since confirmed this potential title
eliminator on Instagram.
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War of the asses
The two ladies have been eying one another in the logjammed
bantamweight division since 2024, when Perez defeated Joselyne
Edwards to push her win streak to three. Perez has called for
the match repeatedly, even titling it “the war of the asses” in a
past interview with
MMA Junkie. Dumont has suggested that the matchup has been
presented to her prospective foe in the past and was turned
down.
Brazil’s Dumont is coming off a decision loss to the aforementioned
Edwards in April, which snapped a considerable win streak. Along
the way, she won matches at featherweight before the division was
shuttered, and picked up three straight victories at 135 pounds
from 2024 to 2025. Since getting her chin checked by Megan
Anderson in her promotional debut, Dumont has gone to 11
straight decisions.
Perez comes into this high-stakes affair on the longest winning
stretch of her professional career, with six in a row leading up to
this battle. All six have come at 135 pounds—she did miss weight
when facing Darya
Zheleznyakova but the promotion counts it as a bantamweight
contest—therefore she technically sits in a tie for the
second-longest win streak in women’s 135-pound history along with
Ronda
Rousey. Only Amanda
Nunes (nine) won more consecutive bouts in the division.