UFC San Antonio loses Alex Perez vs. Manel Kape mid-event

For the third time, UFC San Antonio has lost a fight.

Days after losing Hailey Cowan vs. Tamires Vidal and Trey Ogden vs. Manuel Torres, UFC play-by-play announcer Brendan Fitzgerald announced that the flyweight fight between Alex Perez and Manel Kape was canceled mid-event after the former was forced to withdraw due to a medical issue.

“Unfortunately, Alex Perez and Manel Kape — a flyweight bout between top 10 contenders was set to go down on the main card tonight — that fight has been canceled,” said Fitzgerald during the preliminary portion of the event. “There’s been a medical issue for Alex Perez backstage here, and out of an abundance of caution, they’ve canceled the fight. You just hate to see it on fight day.”

A featherweight fight between Daniel Pineda and Tucker Lutz was promoted to the main portion of the card.

It is unfortunate news for Perez, who has spent a ton of time out of the Octagon since 2020 due to a series of fight cancelations. The Team Oyama representative fought once in 2022, losing to Alexandre Pantoja via first-round submission at UFC 277 this past July. He was scheduled to return against Kai Kara-France at UFC 284 in February, but that was canceled after the latter suffered an injury.

As for Kape, he hoped to extend his win streak to four in this appearance. After a rough start to his UFC career, ‘Starboy’ has rattled off three consecutive wins against Ode’ Osbourne, Zhalgas Zhumagulov and David Dvořák.

There is no word yet on whether the UFC expects to reschedule Perez vs. Kape.

About the author: Kristen King is a writer for Bloody Elbow. She has covered combat sports since 2016. (full bio)

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