Manel Kape is out of his UFC On ESPN 55 main event fight with Matheus Nicolau in Las Vegas on April 27th for reasons that haven’t yet been disclosed.
This is the second time this match-up has been scrapped as it was also set to take place at UFC Fight Night 234 in January until the 30-year-old Kape came in 3.5lbs over the flyweight limit on weigh-in day, leading to the fight being cancelled.
Now Kape is out again and this time Alex Perez has stepped in to replace him against Nicolau on just under a month’s notice.
With six wins from his first seven fights in the UFC, he 32-year-old Perez fought his way to a flyweight title shot in 2020, but suffered a 1st round submission loss.
That was to mark the start of a three-fight losing streak for Perez, having also lost by 1st round submission to Alexandre Pantoja before most recently losing out by unanimous decision to Muhammad Mokaev, leaving him ranked No.8 in the division.
As for the 31-year-old Nicolau, he won his first four UFC fights in a row, but was KO’d by Brandon Royval in the 1st round almost exactly a year ago, leaving him ranked No.5 at 125lbs.
Nicolau vs. Perez still appears to be the main event for UFC On ESPN 55 at this stage for a card that will also include Ryan Spann vs. Bodgan Guskov, Tim Means vs. Uros Medic and Ariane Lipski vs. Karine Silva.
