Questions were mounting during the build-up to UFC Vegas 82 when fans noticed that Ailin Perez was sporting a black eye leading up to the event and it’s now been revealed that it was caused by an altercation that broke out at the UFC Performance Institute. Perez went on to win her fight at UFC Vegas 82 by unanimous decision regardless, but it appears as though the minor injury could have been significantly worse. She explained in her post-fight interview exactly how the black eye came about, and gave some background on the altercation at the UFC Performance Institute:
“So, pretty much I’m someone just like everyone else. 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 about about anyone. But this irrelevant lady came up to me after I was 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.”
Although Perez didn’t go into too much detail about how the altercation at the UFC Performance Institute went down, she did mention that her coach was involved as well:
“I want to thank my coach, who was there at the time of the assault, because if it wasn’t for him, I would have had much worse injuries because he was able to take her off me when she was assaulting me. And the fight probably would have been off if it wasn’t for my coach, who saved me.”
When pressed about who it was that she got into a fight with, she simply said:
“I don’t remember.”
It didn’t take long for the truth to surface though, as MMA Mania were able to confirm that it was bantamweight Joselyn Edwards and obtain a statement from her about the altercation:
“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, he was the one who heated things so that the fight would take place, and then he attacked me and was strangling me. Later, when they had already separated me from Ailin, he was still strangling me and did not want to let me go. He never separated the fight; he attacked me while she attacked me.”
While there were certain elements that remained similar in both women’s accounts, there are also significant differences too. The most notable of those is the involvement of Perez’s coach. MMA manager Alex Davis was also present because Amanda Ribas is one of his clients and she was also training at the same time. He shed even more light on the altercation between Perez and Edwards at the UFC Performance Institute, and the involvement of Perez’s coach, when speaking to MMA Mania:
“I was sitting on the large octagon inside of the P.I. looking at my phone when I heard yelling to my right. When I approached the cage, I saw Ailin and her coach on top of Joselyn, so jumped in to break up the fight. When I went to help out and saw the male coach choking Joselyn 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.”
According to both Edwards’ and Davis’ statements, it appears as though Perez’s coach had significantly more of a role in the altercation at the UFC Performance Institute than she had initially made out. Davis also went on to explain just how deep the choke allegedly was:
“I’m not sure if she was fully unconscious, but she was close. When I got the coach off of Joselyn, the coach was ranting and yelling, trying to continue to fight. I was trying to calm Joselyn down because she thought she was still fighting.”
It’s unclear if anything is going to come about from this altercation at the UFC Performance Institute or if either of the parties involved are going to be taking it any further, but the most common outcome when professional MMA fighters get into an altercation is that it eventually blows over.
