Perez reveals Dumont confronted her in UFC PI bathroom ahead of Vegas 121 co-main

Ailin Perez says Norma Dumont tracked her down to a bathroom at the UFC Performance Institute with a group of teammates, in what the Argentine fighter describes as a near-altercation weeks before their scheduled co-main event at UFC Vegas 121 on September 16 in Las Vegas.

Perez (13-2) and Dumont (13-3) clash in a women’s bantamweight bout at the Apex, and the build-up has been anything but quiet. Perez recently accused Dumont’s boyfriend, UFC middleweight Marco Tulio, of checking her out at the PI — a claim Dumont’s camp pushed back on, saying Tulio had to block Perez on social media after she repeatedly tagged him. Dumont, for her part, has said she is simply looking forward to hurting Perez inside the cage.

Speaking to MMA Fighting, Perez recounted the bathroom incident in detail. “She came looking for me in the PI bathroom with all her friends,” Perez said. “There were a bunch of girls talking about how I’m going to be next, that she’s going to knock me out. And I said, ‘OK, fine, let’s go. I’m waiting for that fight; why not?’ And then my friends came in too to separate us a little because we kind of wanted to fight a little.”

Rather than downplay the friction, Perez says she is actively using it as promotional fuel. She argues that women’s bantamweight suffers from a lack of public drama, and that fighters who keep conflicts behind closed doors are leaving entertainment value — and eyeballs — on the table.

“Everything that’s happening needs to go viral,” she said. “It’s great entertainment, and she’s not taking advantage of that. I’m selling the fight, like I always do with all my fights. It’s very hard to be a star in a category where the girls don’t post and talk about what happens outside of the fight. So, I’m doing double the work.”

Perez also acknowledged she is carrying a foot injury from her previous bout, but insisted it will not be a factor. She says she is already winning the psychological battle and does not need to be at full fitness to defeat Dumont.

Dumont has not publicly addressed the bathroom confrontation, and her silence appears to be a deliberate contrast to Perez’s approach — one that Perez is happy to exploit heading into fight week.