UFC 302 is full of great fights, but the fight with the most heat and bad blood is going unnoticed.
On the preliminary card of Saturday’s event in Newark, NJ, Ailin Perez It is Joseline Edwards will finally get it down after months of online trash talk and a heated incident that left both of them with a bitter taste. The fight between Perez (9-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) and Edwards (13-5 MMA, 4-3 UFC) didn’t start long after the two met.
According to Edwards, a mutual friend reached out to her to see if she could help Perez get around Las Vegas, as it was her first time in the city after her UFC debut in September 2022.
“When he told me his friend was Ailin Perez, I thought, ‘Hmm’” Edwards told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “She’s in my division and the girl is troublesome. I hadn’t seen her debut, which I think was short notice, but I had seen things online that the girl was problematic.
“Regardless, I said, ‘OK, I’m going to be a good person. I’m well-educated, I’ve traveled the world and I’ve had difficulties and a lot of people have mentored me and helped me, so I said, ‘OK, yes. Give her my number.’”
Edwards didn’t really like Perez based on what she saw on social media, but she was forced to help her when she could, telling her how the UFC Performance Institute worked and even introducing her to the Xtreme Couture trainers. Edwards admits she was a little distant from Perez, but was respectful and helped her with whatever she needed. After Perez left Las Vegas, the two kept in touch and exchanged text messages.
‘She attacked me because she’s jealous’
In April 2023, a few months after their initial meeting, Edwards fought and defeated Lucie Pudilova in a controversial split decision. She received a lot of hate online, but nothing bothered her more than reading Perez’s comments.
“They showed me some messages that she wrote publicly, and that’s her opinion, okay,” Edwards said. “Even after my last fights, she also commented and the way she does it, it’s like she wants to be funny, but at the same time you’re talking shit. And that’s fine, that’s her opinion, but if you see me, don’t even come and say hi because that’s being a hypocrite.”
Perez admits to criticizing Edwards’ decision win, but said he was just answering questions and did so analytically. Regardless, this didn’t sit well with Edwards, and their differences reached a boiling point a few months later in November when they met again at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas.
“I ran into her at the private eye and she said, ‘Hey, how are you? Come here and say hi,’” Edwards said as he recalled the moments before the fight began. “I don’t like this hypocrisy. I told her, ‘Hey, win your fight because you talk a lot of shit. You have a big mouth.
“She said, ‘What are you talking about?’ She didn’t remember the things she said. I told her, ‘You said this and that,’ and she said, ‘Well, that’s my opinion.’ OK, that’s her opinion, but here you are trying to give me a hug and say hi to me, idiot.”
Edwards didn’t think the animosity between them would end in a fight and was surprised to exchange blows with Perez and his trainer.
“I promise you my intention was not to fight her,” Edwards said. “It was her coach who started to heat things up and insult me. So what happened? She said, ‘Well, if you’re so tough, come say it to my face.’
“My intention was not to hit her. I just went to talk to her face, so when I get close – we are arguing – she makes a movement as if she was going to hit me, so I hit her. But she was the one who took the first step.”
Both women claim the other attacked first. Perez was left with a cut on his cheek that required stitches and almost compromised his fight with Pudilova, which would take place in a few days.
“She attacked me at UFC PI where I was doing my fight week to fight Lucie (Pudilova) – which I consider a cowardly move to go and hit someone who is with your team and your son,” Perez told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “She didn’t need to be there. It’s my moment, my space. She attacked me because she is jealous.
‘He was suffocating me’
Both Edwards and Perez acknowledge that Perez’s men’s trainer got involved shortly after the two began fighting. Perez said it was to stop Edwards from attacking her, and Edwards said it was to join her.
“He was choking me, and it wasn’t just to hold me back. He was hurting me and trying to choke me,” Edwards explained. “I fell forward on top of Ailin with her coach on my back, and Alex Davis, Amanda Ribas’ coach, he saw everything. … If two people are arguing, that’s fine. But you, as a coach, have to share things. She fought, but he joined the fight instead. Then he ended up on my back and didn’t let me go, so she (Ailin) was either taken off me or ran away. I don’t remember exactly, and she went to safety.
“Anyway, Ailin wasn’t at the scene and was choking me saying, ‘Bitch, I’m going to put you to sleep. Bitch, I’m going to make you sleep. …Alex told him to let me go, I was going to sleep, but he kept choking me, so Alex and I think that Amanda Ribas’ father took him away from me. I could barely breathe. He tried to attack me again, but they stopped him.”
UFC decides to resolve problem in the cage
Perez fought and defeated Pudilova that weekend in one of her best career performances. The UFC was aware of the altercation but took no disciplinary action. Instead, just a few months later, Perez and Edwards received contracts to fight each other professionally.
“This will be the highest paid fight of my career against the easiest opponent, so I’m extremely happy about that,” said Perez.
“Now she will get what she deserves. I’m training for a different purpose, which is to get revenge on her for hurting my eye. Anyway, I already beat her mentally. I won that fight with an injured eye and I felt like Maradona.”
Perez wasn’t the only one happy with the yellow card. Edwards was delighted to learn that she chose Perez as her next opponent.
“I never thought about her, but after the incident I wanted to fight her,” Edwards said. “… I had asked for this in an interview, but I never said anything to the UFC. Then my manager called me and said they offered me Ailin Perez and I said, ‘You can even sign the contract. You know that’s a yes, for sure. I think the UFC wanted to put it all together.”
The two didn’t cross paths much throughout fight week, now that they’re fighting this Saturday at UFC 302. The UFC, trying to avoid any incident, assigned special security to the two fighters and ensured that their schedules didn’t overlap.
The first time Perez and Edwards got close to each other since their heated fight at UFC PI was during Friday’s clashes at the UFC 302 ceremonial weigh-in. And as expected, tensions were high.
In a sport where many of the feuds are often manufactured for promotion and sales, Perez and Edwards give meaning to the UFC motto “as real as possible.” No matter what happens on Saturday, both Perez and Edwards have guaranteed that their fight will not be crushed.
“No, she’s a criminal,” Perez said when asked if things could be resolved after UFC 302.
“For my part, it’s the same thing too,” Edwards said. “I don’t intend to touch or even look at her after the fight. The only contact we will have are the blows she will throw during the fight.”
For more information on the card, visit the MMA Junkie events hub to UFC 302.
