UFC star Ailín Pérez claimed a triumphant victory over Darya Zheleznyakova and did not hesitate to flaunt her win, both verbally and physically.
Last night (September 28), Ailín Pérez from Argentina faced off against Russia’s Darya Zheleznyakova in the Women’s Bantamweight division at the Accor Arena in Paris, France.
Before the fight commenced, controversy arose as both fighters missed the weight. Zheleznyakova’s check-in weight on Friday was below the 136lbs bantamweight limit, and Pérez also missed the weight by half a pound.
Footage showing Pérez apparently shaking on the UFC scale sparked further concerns.
Nonetheless, Pérez secured a victory by submission in the first round, displaying evident satisfaction with her performance.
Upon winning, she immediately began shaking her rear in Zheleznyakova’s face, exaggerating her movements as her opponent got to her feet.
This incident quickly became a hot topic on social media.
One Twitter user commented: “Ailin Perez with the submission AND the celebration! Tapping out and turning up now that’s how you make a statement!”
Others were less impressed, with some describing the act as disrespectful. One person tweeted: “Having someone twerk in your face after getting finished is the ultimate disrespect wow.”
“This is sooo disrespectful,” another added, while a third person simply called it “Low class.”
Following the fight, Pérez expressed her excitement to TalkSport: “I’m super happy to be participating in UFC Paris and like I always say I want to be the protagonist of every show that I’m at for the fans and for the UFC.”
She continued, “So for me I was happy that they gave me an opponent with this level of experience because since I started in the UFC they’ve been giving me a lot of UFC veterans that have at least five fights in the UFC. So it was nice to be able to get a fighter that was I guess a little bit less challenging compared to the rest so I could show myself and really get a highlight win instead of winning by decision against harder, more challenging fighters.”
Pérez dedicated her victory to her coach Javier Oshar Sabo, stating her ‘biggest dream’ is to ‘be the one to bring UFC to Argentina’.
“Mick Maynard is doing a great job of setting my career up in the UFC getting the right fights for me. I’m done asking for specific names,” she added. “I’m already in the top 15 so I’m going to stop asking for anyone because everyone who I call out ends up running away anyways.”
She concluded by expressing her future plans: “So what I would want to do is finish the year in UFC Tampa in December or potentially even maybe if they have a card in Miami to do that because I consider myself a Floridian now that I’m living in the United States and that’s what I would like to do.”