Ailin Perez’s win over Lucie Pudilova was overshadowed by an altercation that took place with the bantamweight Joselyn Edwards prior to her fight.
Perez secured the win at UFC Vegas 82 by beating Pudilova via a unanimous decision on November 18th, 2023. The win took Perez’s record to 2-1 in the UFC. However, an altercation with Edwards dominated the headlines. It is claimed that the assault left Perez with a black eye just four days before her fight. And this was after Perez claimed that Edwards had alleged she was criticizing her performances. And now that the dust has settled, this is what Perez had to say.
“I don’t have a problem personally with anyone. What I did was I stated my opinion online about the fight. I didn’t disrespect anyone, I didn’t talk bad about anyone. But this irrelevant lady came up to me after I opinionated about one of her fights, just talking about the performance that she did. And she came to assault me. She did assault me with the intention to make me pull out of my fight, but I’m sorry, she did not achieve it. I won and fought regardless of the assault that took place,” Perez
Despite this being the case, Perez’s side of the story has been disputed by Edwards and MMA manager Alex Davis. Both accused Perez’s coach of being heavily involved to the point where Edwards claimed the coach started the feud.
“While we were fighting, her coach attacked me from behind. He was strangling me so that Ailin would hit me. Her coach attacked me. I practically had to fight two of them. He did not protect anyone, he started the fight,” Edwards
“When I approached the cage, I saw Ailin and her coach on top of Joselyne, so jumped in to break up the fight. When I went to help out and saw the male coach choking Joselyne with a rear-naked choke, and it was very deep — he was cranking on the choke. If the choke was held on for much longer, it would have been a terrible scene,” Davis
It is not exactly clear if there will be any further ramifications, but MMA fans on social media were very clear in their belief that such behavior should not be tolerated.
Social Media Reaction
Press charges
— CthulUFC (@xCthulhUFCx) November 19, 2023
That is crazy
— AhtiAaho (@AhtiAaho) November 18, 2023