Bantamweight bad blood is headed to “Sin City.”
Two top-five Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s Bantamweight contenders collide this weekend when No. 2-ranked Norma Dumont battles No. 4-ranked Ailin Perez on the UFC Vegas 121 “Prelims” this Sat. (Sept. 26, 2026) inside Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Despite being completely buried on the preliminary portion of the card, this potential title eliminator carries more tension than any other fight at UFC Vegas 121.
And the bad blood is very real.
UFC’s resident twerker, Perez, has been calling for a fight against Dumont for nearly three years, even dubbing the matchup “The Battle of the Asses.” Dumont, however, repeatedly ignored the Argentine’s callouts.
Last year, after Raquel Pennington withdrew from her scheduled Noche UFC 3 fight against Dumont, Perez raised her hand to step in. According to Perez, Dumont turned down the replacement matchup before blocking her on social media.
The contracts are finally signed, and the two Bantamweight rivals will get to put their hands on each other this weekend. For Dumont, the fight could not be more personal.
“It’s a fight that literally has a personal anger, personal issues, that the two of us have against each other,” Dumont told MMA Fighting recently. “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 … She has mental problems. This girl really has mental problems. She has this little game of trying to get people worked up.”
“Ever since she signed the contract, I’m going to focus on beating her on the 26th,” Dumont 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.”
It sounds like Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) won’t be needed for this one.
Because of the intense rivalry, Dumont expects to fight far more aggressively than usual.
“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. 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.”
“I’m going to stop her before the final round,” Dumont concluded. “This fight is not going to last 15 minutes. I guarantee you that. It’s not going to last 15 minutes.”
If Dumont follows through on that promise, it will mark her first finish inside the Octagon.
The Brazilian is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Joselyne Edwards, which snapped her impressive six-fight winning streak. Perez, meanwhile, has rattled off six consecutive victories since losing her UFC debut.
Will there be blood? Who knows. But there will undoubtedly be bad blood.
For the rest of the UFC Vegas 121 fight card and Paramount+ lineup click here.
