The growing rivalry between Norma Dumont and Ailin Perez is boiling as they approach fight night on Sept. 26, and the top-ranked Brazilian makes it clear that things are personal with the rising Argentine bantamweight.
Dumont vs. Perez goes down in the preliminary portion of UFC Vegas 121, and Dumont celebrates finally having a date in the cage with Perez after claiming “she ran away as much as she could” before ultimately agreeing to meeting at the Meta APEX.
“It’s a fight that literally has a personal anger, a personal issue, that the two of us have against each other,” Dumont told MMA Fighting. “It’s a fight that we’re going to deliver a lot. I’m excited, I really want it. I think it’s going to be fun.”
Perez is not one to shy away from inciting opponents verbally before fights, and took aim at Dumont’s boyfriend and fellow UFC fighter Marco Tulio. In a video posted this past August on social media, Perez claims Dumont had to “distract” the UFC middleweight from watching her train at the UFC Performance Institute.
“She’s already secretly filmed me three times,” Dumont said. “She loves doing that. She has mental problems. This girl really has mental problems. And when I saw the video, I looked at it and… this isn’t the first time, she’s done this before. She had already tagged him in her stories, so much so that he blocked her specifically so she would stop tagging him in things. She has this little game of trying to get people worked up. But, honestly, it’s very insignificant, so it makes absolutely no difference to me.”
“Ever since she signed the contract, I’m going to focus on beating her on the 26th,” she continued. “I don’t need to say anything else, I don’t need to fall for her bait or play along with the little things she likes to do. She’s already not someone who has much shame about anything, neither in her personal life nor anything else, so now that the contract is signed, I already have my date to beat her, I have my time to do what I need to do, what I want to do without getting arrested, so it makes absolutely no difference to me what she does outside of the fight.”
Tulio told MMA Fighting her promotional style is “bad for the sport,” and Dumont will bring the win back for Chute Boxe in Sao Paulo.
“It’s a very low level, man,” Tulio said. “I only saw the comments, even people from her own side were saying, ‘Man, she’s tripping, there’s no reason to do this. He’s not even looking at you.’ How crazy is that, man? But I think she’s begging for attention, right? This sport needs attention, but I think when you lower the level, the attention comes from the people you least expect.
“Norma has her own point of view and likes to speak her mind, just like Ailin Perez, but the level is completely different. Ailin Perez takes it all the way down, saying a lot of bullshit, a lot of nonsense, and I think that’s bad for the sport, especially for women. I think there’s a lack of class on the other side, and we don’t want to play that game or attack us with trash talk. We’re sticking to our game, just focused on the work. You can be sure we’re going to bring the victory back to Brazil.”
Dumont is thrilled with the opportunity to punch Perez in the face for money — and without legal repercussions — at UFC Vegas 121, and says that animosity usually leads to her best performances in MMA.
“I always say it’s more fun when you beat up someone you don’t like,” Dumont said. “Training with someone you like is harder because sometimes you hold back so you don’t hurt them. And in a fight, when you’re fighting someone you don’t like, you want to hurt them, so it doesn’t matter where you hit them or what you hit them with. You want to cause damage. I’ve had that with a few people I’ve had some issues with. Chelsea [Chandler] was one of them, and I had some issues with Irene [Aldana] as well. I think I actually fight better. When I’m very peaceful, sometimes I overthink things. When I’m angry, I think I become more aggressive.”
Dumont said she has “absolutely nothing” good to say about Perez on a personal level, calling her “ugly, average, unpleasant” and “not a good human being.” Professionally speaking, technique-wise, the compliments remain limited.
“She has good wrestling,” Dumont said. “She has some good takedowns, her jiu-jitsu is extremely limited, her striking is limited, but in terms of quality, I believe she has good wrestling. Two takedown variations.”
In the end, Dumont expects to finish Perez inside the distance to hopefully earn a shot at the bantamweight belt.
“I’m going to stop her before [the final round],” Dumont said. “This fight is not going to last 15 minutes. I guarantee you that. It’s not going to last 15 minutes.”
On paper, she’s coming off a decision loss to Joselyne Edwards. Dumont maintains, however, she deserved to have her hands raised that night in April, which would bring her winning streak up to seven. On top of that, the Brazilian expects the UFC title to become vacant after Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes finally face off at UFC 324 on Nov. 14.
“In my opinion, whoever wins [in Harrison vs. Nunes] retires, and whoever loses retires. The two are going to have that fight and walk away,” she continued. “I’m going to do my job. Honestly, I’m going to do what I love because of the money, because every time I go in there, I come out with my bank account full. And second, because I like fighting. But I honestly don’t sit around waiting for, ‘The next one is going to be it, the next one is going to be it.’ It will happen when it has to happen, and it will be inevitable.”
