There were a lot of great moves being pulled out in the octagon during UFC Fight Night 243 on Saturday, but one move in particular had everybody talking.
During the event, Ailin Perez scored her fourth consecutive victory when she overcame Darya Zheleznyakova via submission in the first round.
Although the victory will surely help Perez climb closer to a UFC bantamweight championship bout, it was her post-fight celebration that overshadowed any championship conversations.
Immediately after making Zheleznyakova tap out, Perez got up and proceeded to twerk in her fallen opponent’s face.
The moment has left viewers divided, and after a clip of the twerk was shared on social media on Instagram user branded it “disgusting sportsmanship”.
A second added: “here’s no room in MMA for this. Karma has a funny way of humbling people. You’ll see.”
“Do that s**t on your own time,” another furious fan wrote. “This type of s**t should be FINED! Terrible sportsmanship and terrible look for the seriousness of the sport! I swear this is UFC and NOT WWE?!?!”
Others described the move as “trashy”, “unprofessional”, and “classless”.
Even UFC commentator Ariel Helwani called out Perez for the dance, writing on X: “The level of disrespect. My word.”
However, in response to Helwani, Perez explained in her own words why she performed the act, writing: “My friend @arielhelwani , Darya said some very disrespectful things about me before the fight so I had to do it […] I would love to tell you more about it on your NEW show.”
In a pre-fight interview, Perez voiced her anger about Zheleznyakova’s trash-talking, saying: “It didn’t bother me, but it did tough my ovaries.
“Fighters who talk badly about me end up paying for it in the cage. You can ask Joselyne Edwards. I know I didn’t knock her out, but I hit her quite badly in the striking. Darya is completely wrong, and I’m going to show it in the cage. The more she underestimates me the more dangerous I get.”
The controversy gained more backlash as Perez actually missed weight by half a pound – and was granted the fight because her opponent allowed it. Perez was reportedly forced to forfeit 20% of her purse to Zheleznyakova, per Yahoo Sports.
In response to the backlash – with many commenters on Instagram telling her to “stick to OnlyFans” – Perez has since shared a link to her OnlyFans page.
Perez, 29, added in a post-fight interview that she hopes to continue climbing the ranks and become the first Argentinian champion.
“I am very happy,” she said, per Sportskeeda. “This is a victory we worked hard for. We knew we were gonna win and I wanna be the first Argentinian champion.