Over the holiday weekend, the UFC finalized a big time matchup in their flyweight division. MMA Fighting first reported over the weekend that former title challenger Alex Perez (24-7) would be taking on Manel Kape (18-6) at the upcoming Fight Night in San Antonio.
The Fight Night takes place on March 25th. Originally, Perez was supposed to take on Kai Kara-France in February at UFC 284. However, Kara-France had to pull out of that fight due to an injury. Because of that injury, they decided to move Perez to a different fight on a different date.
At the end of 2020, Perez fought Deiveson Figueiredo for the flyweight title. He was submitted in under two minutes. Due to a number of different factors, it wouldn’t be until this past July that Perez fought again. This time against Alexandre Pantoja.
Pantoja ran through Perez in under two minutes as well. Now, Perez needs to show the UFC that he’s still a top contender at flyweight. That said, he’s going to have his hands full in March.
UFC San Antonio
Manel Kape had a ton of hype behind him when he made his UFC debut. He started out against elite competition when he took on Alexandre Pantoja and Matheus Nicolau. He lost both of those fights by close decisions. Since then, he’s been perfect.
He just fought a couple of weeks ago and immediately wanted to jump right back in there. When news broke that Kara-France suffered an injury, Kape told the UFC he wanted the shot against Perez. The promotion was game and now we have a fantastic flyweight contest. Whoever wins this one will take one big step towards title contention.