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FRESNO, Calif. – UFC newcomer Alex Perez made sure to enter his new home on the right foot after cruising past Carls John de Tomas en route to a second-round choke at UFC Fight Night 123.

As far as coming out victorious of the bantamweight bout in his backyard goes, Perez (19-4 MMA, 1-0 UFC) is on cloud nine. But here’s the thing: Perez is a flyweight. And, after taking steps to make sure he hit the 125-pound mark on the scale, that’s the division in which he expected to meet de Tomas (8-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC) on Saturday.

On Thursday, though, that changed. Upon hearing of de Tomas’ issues getting the weight down, the UFC and the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) thought it would be best to move the fight up a class. After Perez signed off on it, the decision was made official.

Perez said he was basically given two options: “Either fight, or don’t get paid.” And considering a 10-week camp had gone into it, he went with the first choice. But he wasn’t exactly happy about it.

“I was kind of mad,” Perez told MMAjunkie backstage at Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif. “ CSAC doesn’t know how much it costs to get a nutritionist. I pay a nutritionist to help me get down the weight. That’s money out of my pocket. And then to tell me the week of that he can’t make it? They need to do a better job at checking.

“I came in at at 139 (pounds). The morning they told me, I was 137. An 11-pound cut to 125 does nothing – still eating three to four times a day, drinking a gallon, a gallon-and-a-half of water. They’re punishing the guy that did their job, and I felt like it was unfair. I didn’t get no percentage to move to a weight class up. He came in a lot bigger than me. I came in at 143, (and) we ate a lot last night.”

This year, the CSAC approved a 10-point plan that aims to discourage extreme weigh-cutting. This includes monitoring the fighters’ weight ahead of fight week.

When he confirmed the division switch to MMAjunkie, UFC Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky said both the promotion and the commission felt it was “in the best interest of the athletes.”

Novitzky didn’t disclose the weight de Tomas was by the time they made the call. It was the fighter’s second time dealing with weight issues: in June, he came in at 131 pounds for a UFC Fight Night 111 flyweight meeting.

The idea of the plan is, of course, to preserve the fighters’ safety. But Perez said that there was one person whose health didn’t seem to have been taken into account on Saturday.

“It felt like they weren’t worried about my safety,” Perez said. “They were worried about the other guy’s safety, but they weren’t worried about my safety. I could have got really hurt if the guy were to connect or something. He might have come in above 160. Who knows? …

“I don’t think it was fair. At least make it a catchweight. I did my work outside of camp, and I got down. It’s not my fault that he got sick. Whatever happened on him, that’s on him. I didn’t get nothing out of it. The guy actually got something out of it: He actually got to be healthy.”

In any case, the size difference was no issue when Perez sunk in the fight-ending D’Arce choke. At 25, he continued to impress after the submission that caught the UFC rresident’s eye at Dana White’s Contender Series 5 back in August.

All in all, fight-week stress aside, Perez is in a good place.

“It’s amazing,” Perez said. “It was destined to be. I got signed, also them having a show in Fresno. It couldn’t be any better.”

To hear more from Perez, check out the video above.

And for more on UFC Fight Night 123, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

Filed under: News, UFC, Videos