The UFC returned to the UFC APEX after a one-week break following its historic UFC 300 and despite the fan criticism of the UFC Vegas 91 card, it delivered.
Headlining the event were flyweights No. 5 Matheus Nicolau and No. 8 Alex Perez. After a close back and forth in the first, Perez came into the second with a knockout in mind and dropped Nicolau with a flurry of punches to end it.
"I just put the whole division on notice," he said in his post-fight interview.
Nicolau was coming off a first-round TKO loss to Brandon Royval in April 2023. Since then he had two previous bouts with Manel Kape canceled. Perez, had a turbulent last few years. He's had 11 fights canceled since 2020 for various reasons. In that same amount of time, he's lost three of three to Deiveson Figueiredo, Alexandre Pantoja, and Muhammad Mokaev.
In the co-main event, light heavyweights Ryan Spann and Bogdan Guskov squared off. Guskov overcame some adversity in round one to finish Spann in round two, proving he's a force to be reckoned with.