In the first final of ‘The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America’, bantamweights Alejandro Perez and Jose Quinonez put on a back and forth affair with its own share of controversy at UFC 180 in Mexico City on Saturday.
Both fighters opened exchanging inside leg kicks with Quinonez taking center of the cage. Quinonez was able to trip Perez to the mat, but Perez used an underhook to stand and eventually separate. Quinonez caught a kick from Perez and used it to score with a knee in a scramble, but the two quickly separated thereafter.
Halfway through the round, Quinonez began to switch stances and allowed Perez to take center of the Octagon. Close to the end of the round, Quinonez was off balanced both by a one-two and inside leg kick that squarely put him on the defense. Quinonez scored with a jumping switch knee near the end of the round, but ate a cracking right hand that appeared to have hurt him.
Perez picked up in the second where he left off, landing hard rights and a variety of leg kicks. Perez eventually took Quinonez off of his feet with one and scored with follow up shots, but Quinonez was able to recover. Towards the middle of the round, in fact, Quinonez drilled Perez with two hard, back-to-back punches that rattled his competitor. The two had wild exchanges at moments, even to the point where they were literally run at and from one another, both missing and scoring with a series of attempts.
Perez opened round three trying to take Quinonez’s head off, leaping with lunging punches. In a scramble, however, Perez cracked Quinonez, but ended up on the ground in a wild exchange where Quinonez ended up on top after Perez had a submission attempt of his own. Out of where, Quinonez seems to have intentionally head butt Perez, forcing referee John McCarthy to temporarily halt the action. The act was egregious that McCarthy deducted two points for the infraction.
Once the bout resumed, Perez took center of the cage, but was taken down with a body lock trip by Quinonez. In a late scramble, Quinonez pulled guillotine with one arm of Perez blocked, but couldn’t get the tap.
In the end, the judges scored it in favor of Perez via unanimous decision, 29-26, 29-26, 28-27. He becomes the first winner of ‘The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America’.