Alex Perez Faces Su Mudaerji in Macau After U.S. Run
Alex Perez gets su mudaerji in Macau on Saturday, and the matchup stands out because Perez spent the first 34 fights of his mixed martial arts career inside the United States. Now he is back on a main card abroad, this time at Galaxy Arena in China.
Macau brings Perez back overseas
Perez is scheduled to face Sumudaerji on the main card of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event. It is another step in a recent stretch that has taken him from Doha, Qatar, last November to Macau this week after a career that had been built almost entirely on U.S. cards.
That shift is unusual for him. Before he reached the UFC, Perez never fought outside his home state, and through his first 34 pro bouts he did not leave the country for a fight. His UFC travel mostly ran through Philadelphia, Orlando and Las Vegas before those international assignments arrived.
Las Vegas and Doha before Macau
The road to Macau includes a hard reset in Las Vegas. Perez fought Charles Johnson on the UFC 324 prelims at T-Mobile Arena after a November loss to Asu Almabayev, and he entered that bout on the last fight of his contract.
He also missed weight by two-and-a-half pounds before fighting Johnson, which cost him 25-percent of his purse and made him ineligible for post-fight bonuses. Perez said, “I shot myself in the foot with some stuff, and you know how life is.” He added, “Actions have consequences. I messed up and had some consequences, so working through all that stuff, so it was just on the personal side, a lot of battles going on. Trying to be there as a husband, as a fighter, father, friend, brother, sibling; all that stuff and it all took a toll.”
What Perez says abroad
Late last week, Perez described the upside of fighting overseas with a grin. “I like it better when I’m coaching; I can enjoy the food and all that stuff, right?” he said. “I can’t complain though: I get to see the world, get to hang out, get to get paid to punch somebody in the face.”
He also addressed the pressure of being on the final fight of his deal, saying, “Yes and no,” before adding, “I always like to gamble on myself, so if you’re putting me in there on the last fight of my deal, I gotta go out there and show out? I’ll take those odds every day. It wasn’t too much on my mind — obviously, I knew going in that it was the last fight of my deal — but I didn’t feel any pressure. Every time I step out there, I gamble on myself.”
For Perez, Macau is another chance to keep that approach working away from home. He is 34 years old, he has already fought in Doha and Las Vegas after years of staying close to home, and Saturday’s main-card bout with Sumudaerji gives him another overseas test in a run that has changed the geography of his career.
