Alex Perez has revealed that a seizure backstage caused his fight with Manel Kape at UFC On ESPN 43 on Saturday night to be cancelled just prior to the main card beginning, but his opponent has shown a remarkable lack of empathy for his plight.
“First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for all the support and concerns,” Perez wrote on Twitter. “I was doing my pre-fight warm up and had a seizure. I immediately received medical attention. My hydration, electrolytes, etc were all more than adequate. This has nothing to do with weight cut. It was one of the easiest cuts of my career. I will be undergoing further testing in the upcoming weeks to determine the cause. I would appreciate privacy. My apologizes to my opponent and fans. Thank you to the UFC medical team for their help and support.”
However, despite the apparent seriousness of the situation it seems that his opponent Kape wasn’t buying his excuse and instead opted to brand him a coward.
“Unfortunately, my opponent just came to the [weigh-in] to pose and take a picture!,” Kape wrote on Twitter. “Inside me I felt that he would not have the courage to face me, our energies were totally different and I knew that he did not want to be here, he did not want the same as I wanted, and it was notorious the fear that emanated from him. But I was surprised to see him getting on the bus and I really thought we were going to fight. Even after grabbing him by the neck and giving him some good slaps in the chest, in the meeting room.
“We arrived at the Arena, warming up, turned on my hands and only three fights left for our fight, he just gave up! Your DNA is an abomination. Unlike you, my DNA is from fearless warriors coming from Queen NJinga Mbande, my DNA has history. I kill by the sword and die by the sword inside the battlefield. YOU COWARD! Cowards die several times before their death.”
Kape also wrote another response replying directly to Perez’s update about what happened.
“The cause was that you were scared, and when you are scared your whole body trembles and your reactions are rigid and you lose control of your body,” Kape told Perez. “You are not a man, because a man dies like a man.”
For the record, on the night of the fight cancellation Perez’s teammate Vince Morales had indicated that there was actually a troubling issue with the fighter’s health backstage.
“Not my place to talk about what happened with Alex. Scary stuff but hopefully it eases everyone’s minds that by the time the EMTs got there, he was together and speaking okay. Watch the slander.”
