Women’s bantamweight grudge match booked for Sept. 26 UFC Apex event

Prepare for a dance-off before, after or even during the matchup.

The fourth Ultimate Fighting Championship card of September was announced by ESPN Knockout’s fighter-turned-commentator Gaston Reyno, who declared on social media on Friday the first pairing slotted into UFC Fight Night 289. The event, which will likely also be titled UFC Vegas 121, will go down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Sept. 26. That matchup, which is not expected to be the main attraction, comes at 135 pounds between Norma Dumont (13-3) and Ailin Perez (13-2). The Argentinian has since confirmed this potential title eliminator on Instagram.

War of the asses

The two ladies have been eying one another in the logjammed bantamweight division since 2024, when Perez defeated Joselyne Edwards to push her win streak to three. Perez has called for the match repeatedly, even titling it “the war of the asses” in a past interview with MMA Junkie. Dumont has suggested that the matchup has been presented to her prospective foe in the past and was turned down.

Brazil’s Dumont is coming off a decision loss to the aforementioned Edwards in April, which snapped a considerable win streak. Along the way, she won matches at featherweight before the division was shuttered, and picked up three straight victories at 135 pounds from 2024 to 2025. Since getting her chin checked by Megan Anderson in her promotional debut, Dumont has gone to 11 straight decisions.

Perez comes into this high-stakes affair on the longest winning stretch of her professional career, with six in a row leading up to this battle. All six have come at 135 pounds—she did miss weight when facing Darya Zheleznyakova but the promotion counts it as a bantamweight contest—therefore she technically sits in a tie for the second-longest win streak in women’s 135-pound history along with Ronda Rousey. Only Amanda Nunes (nine) won more consecutive bouts in the division.

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