As the flyweight division was slowly developing into one of the UFC's finest, Alex Perez was, for the most part, on the outside looking in. For a variety of reasons, Perez wasn't active as the division was being rebuilt and reborn under matchmaker Mick Maynard's guidance. In a 44-month span, Perez fought just twice.
There was the pandemic -- Remember that? -- and then injuries either to himself or his opponent -- that largely conspired to keep him out of the Octagon. He finally returned in March but lost a tough fight to Muhammad Mokaev, which extended his losing skein to three fights. He ended that in April with a Performance of the Night KO of Matheus Nicolau and on Saturday, is back in the cage when he meets unbeaten rising star Tatsuro Taira in the main event of UFC Vegas 93 at Apex.
After struggling to compete, the bout with the 15-0 Taira will be his third in 90 days. Talk about making up for lost time!
He'll need a vacation after that workload.
Perez, though, wants to compete again in 2024.
"If I come out of it healthy, I'll take a little vacation so I can spend some time with my son," Perez said. "I've been busy training and in training camp so much that I haven't been able to spend as much time with him as I'd like. So my biggest priority first is going to be hanging out with him. He's three years old and so I'll spend some time with him, give him a little vacation, give him a little me time. From there, we'll figure it out. Whatever they ask me to do, I'm usually the first to say yes."
Being active is only going to help push him forward. His three-fight losing streak wasn't good, but it came in a title fight with Deiveson Figueiredo, at UFC 277 to future [and now reigning] champion Alexandre Pantoja and then in March to Mokaev, who is one of the sport's top prospects.
Now, he'll face Taira, an unbeaten 24-year-old who looks like the real deal. Taira is 15-0 with 11 finishes. In his last four fights, he's won by submission due to arm bar over C.J. Vergara; by submission due to a triangle choke and arm bar to Jesus Santos Aguilar; by decision over Edgar Chairez and by TKO over Carlos Hernandez.
Taira is -200 to win at DraftKings over the fifth-round Perez. However, Perez has improved greatly simply by virtue of being in the Octagon with such elite opposition. His one clear advantage of Taira is the level of competition each has faced.
Perez has unquestionably met better opposition, which he said helps make him improve in future fights.
"It does a lot [for my mental state] knowing I can compete at the top with them," Perez said. "Obviously, the outcome wasn't what I wanted in those fights, but it shows me I can do what it takes to get to that point. And like we talked about regarding the mental aspect, I'm not going to break mentally. I did lose but I've been rebuilding myself and I'm ready for the next step."