It can be hard to stop the bleeding once it starts. Ask
Alex
Perez.
The
Team Oyama product will look to end a career-worst drought and
improve upon his position as a Top 10 flyweight in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship when he collides with
Matheus
Nicolau in the
UFC on ESPN 55 headliner this Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas. Perez enters the cage on a three-fight losing streak that
now spans nearly four years. The 32-year-old former
Tachi
Palace Fights champion last suited up at UFC Fight Night 238,
where he wound up on the wrong side of a unanimous decision against
the undefeated
Muhammad
Mokaev on March 2. Perez has not paid a visit to victory lane
since he stopped
Jussier
Formiga with a first-round leg kick at UFC 250 in June
2020—more than 1,400 days ago. On the other side of the equation,
Nicolau has rattled of six wins in seven outings. However, the
Nova Uniao standout finds himself on the rebound following an
April 15, 2023 knockout loss to
Brandon
Royval at UFC on ESPN 44. The setback followed consecutive wins
over
Alan
Gabriel dos Santos,
Felipe
Efrain,
Manel Kape,
Tim
Elliott,
David
Dvorak and
Matt
Schnell. Nicolau, 31, has never suffered back-to-back
losses.
The Nicolau-Perez showdown and its resulting fallout for the
flyweight division is but one storyline to watch at UFC on ESPN 55.
Here are three more:
On Shaky Ground
Inconsistency continues to plague
Ryan Spann.
The physically imposing and undeniably talented
Fortis
MMA rep will attempt to bounce back from back-to-back losses to
Nikita
Krylov and
Anthony
Smith when he squares off with
Bogdan
Guskov in the three-round light heavyweight co-main event.
Stakes are high for Spann, who has been dominant at times and
confounding at others. The ex-
Legacy
Fighting Alliance titleholder boasts 18 finishes—12 of them
submissions—on his resume but has yet to make a real move toward
the top of the 205-pound weight class. In his way stands Guskov.
The 31-year-old Uzbekistan native has gone the distance only once
in his 18-fight career and carries prodigious knockout power in his
hands. Guskov improved to 1-1 inside the Octagon on Feb. 10, when
he buried “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 30 finalist
Zac Pauga
with punches in the first round of their UFC Fight Night 236
pairing. Can Spann make up for lost time and start to finally live
up to his potential, or does Guskov steal his thunder?
Worth the Risk
Karine
Silva and
Ariane
Lipski should provide some further clarity for the women’s
flyweight division when they do battle against one another in a
featured attraction at 125 pounds. They are currently operating
just outside the Top 10. Silva has momentum on her side. The
30-year-old Gile Ribeiro protégé marches into her latest test on
the strength of eight straight victories, all of them finishes.
Silva last fought at UFC 292, where she avenged a 2014 defeat to
Maryna
Moroz by submitting the Ukrainian with an armbar in the first
round of their Aug. 19 rematch. She had tapped
Poliana
Botelho and
Ketlen
Souza in her two previous Octagon assignments. Lipski,
meanwhile, has begun to meet the expectations that were set for her
when she emerged in the European regional scene years ago. The
onetime
Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki champion has pieced together a
three-fight winning streak since a stunning August 2022 defeat to
Priscila
Cachoeira. Lipski last competed in December, when she disposed
of Casey O’Neill with a second-round armbar at UFC 296. Which
potential contender has what it takes to leapfrog the other?
Heavy Artillery
Jhonata
Diniz’s placement on the main draw provides some insight into
what UFC brass thinks about his future. Whether those projections
warrant some merit remains to be seen. The undefeated Brazilian
puts his perfect 6-0 record on the line when he makes his
organizational debut opposite Austin Lane in a three-round
heavyweight showcase. Diniz nailed down a UFC contract in
September, when he needed a little more than three minutes to punch
out
Eduardo
Neves on Week 6 of
Dana White’s Contender Series. The former kickboxer has
finished all six of his opponents inside one round. On the other
side of the ledger, Lane’s athleticism alone makes him a formidable
first hurdle. A fifth-round pick in 2010, he spent parts of five
seasons in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions and
Chicago Bears before he transitioned to mixed martial arts. After a
so-so start to his career, Lane struck gold in the Fury Fighting
Championship, Combat Night and Warfare MMA promotions, then made
his way to the UFC via DWCS. However, a Sept. 9 knockout loss to
Justin
Tafa—it was his first misstep in almost four years—cooled some
of the enthusiasm surrounding him. Will Diniz show he has some
staying power at the sport’s highest level?