SAN ANTONIO – Due to life events and a series of unfortunate bout cancelations, former UFC flyweight title challenger Alex Perez hasn’t competed as often as he would like.

At UFC on ESPN 43, Perez (24-7 MMA, 6-3 UFC) returns to action to take on Manel Kape in his first appearance since last July. Perez expects an evenly-matched fight against Kape (18-6 MMA, 3-2 UFC), but believes he will have to deal with early blitzes in order to stop a two-fight skid.

In his previous outing, Perez was tapped in the first round against Alexandre Pantoja, which came after a first-round submission in his title challenge against Deiveson Figueiredo. There was over 20 months between the two bouts, a pace that Perez hopes to avoid at all costs in the future.

“Injuries and the whole COVID thing,” Perez told reporters at Wednesday’s media day. “I believe I was supposed to fight (Matt) Schnell three or four times, and like two or three weeks before the fight, something happened whether he got COVID, I got COVID one time, you know things like that.

“It was nonstop for me, I just kind of had to go with it. I would love to be more active, and then obviously, injuries. During that time I was still helping my teammates train and I’d still get banged up. Just a little bit of everything. Life kind of came into that, my son was born, so I wanted to take some time off and spend some time with him. So yeah, I’m excited to be back.”

After being signed to the UFC from Dana White’s Contender Series in 2017, Perez won six of seven bouts, including a three-fight win streak with stoppages of Jordan Espinosa and Jussier Formiga to earn a title shot. He hopes to get right back in the mix by picking up a big win over Kape at AT&T Center on Saturday.

Check out the full pre-fight interview with Perez in the video above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 43.