What’s Next For Alex Perez?

UFC Vegas 93 went down this past weekend (Sat., June 15, 2024) at — you guessed it! — UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. And there were several fighters left feeling the post-fight blues once the dust settled, including Garrett Armfield, who was choked out by Brady Hiestand in the second round of their Bantamweight affair.

Also, Jeka Saragih was forced to say “uncle” by Westin Wilson, who pulled off slick triangle armbar submission in the first round of their Featherweight “Prelims” match (video replay here). But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?

Alex Perez.

Coming into the event, Perez was holding strong at the No. 5 spot in the Flyweight division even though he was a horrid 1-3 in his previous four bouts, which included a failed bid to dethrone then-division kingpin, Deiveson Figueiredo, at UFC 255. He was, however, coming off a spectacular knockout win over Matheus Nicolau (see it here), so he was hoping to capitalize off that momentum by taking out one of the rising stars in the division in Tatsuro Taira, who hasn’t tasted defeat yet in his professional combat sports career (15-0), including going five-for-five inside the Octagon.

Unfortunately for Perez, the worst case scenario happened.

Halfway through round two, Taira went for what Dominick Cruz called a “very tricky body triangle takedown that you don’t see a lot,” which prompted Perez to scream out in pain while holding his right knee on the ground. The fight was obviously called before Taira could pile on the punishment, allowing officials to go in to assess the damage.

Eventually, Perez was stretchered out of the venue and taken to a local hospital. The extent of Perez’s injury is unknown, but when it comes to problems in the knee, it doesn’t look good. It would be irresponsible for us to assume just how bad it is — or how long he could sidelined — until official word comes out; however, if Perez does have to sit out for an extended period of time, his status in the division could drop drastically.

Indeed, this sport is unforgiving, and if Perez is forced to miss an extended period of time, he could drop out of the Top 10 … or Top 15 altogether because of inactivity as a result of the injury. Make no mistake, it wasn’t a fluke injury — it was all initiated by Taira’s effort and high-level takedown.

Perez is one of the scrappiest fighters in the sport, so there is no doubt that he will eventually bounce back to his winning ways that saw him go 6-1 in his first seven fights with the promotion to earn him a world title shot. In the meantime, however, rising stars like Taira will definitely be taking advantage of his absence.

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For complete UFC Vegas 93: “Perez vs. Taira” results and play-by-play, click HERE.