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If he gets past Rogerio Bontorin at UFC 262, Matt Schnell wants Alex Perez fight rebooked

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Matt Schnell hopes he can draw Alex Perez again after he gets past Rogerio Bontorin.

Schnell (15-5 MMA, 5-3 UFC), who was originally scheduled to face Perez at UFC 262 on May 15, will now face Bontorin (16-3-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) instead after Perez withdrew.

While Schnell admitted Perez (24-6 MMA, 6-2 UFC) wasn’t the original opponent he had hoped for, he was confident in his preparation and ready to throw down with the former title challenger.

“Originally, when the Alex Perez fight was made, that wasn’t necessarily the fight that I wanted,” Schnell told MMA Junkie. “But I was up for a new contract, they offered me a new deal that I really liked, and when you sign a new deal, you take the fights they offer you. So we said yes to Alex Perez. Preparation has been tough, but we’ve put in the work. So it was a tough pill to swallow there, getting the news that it wasn’t going to be Perez, because at this point I felt that I put in the preparation, and I was getting to feel confident.

“That’s the thing about it: (A Bontorin win) doesn’t put me much of anywhere, but I’m trying to stay active. I want to fight, so we’re going to go out and sort it out. But I don’t know, I still think probably the Alex Perez fight is the fight to make if I can get past Bontorin, and that’s what’s so great about the flyweight division. It is wide open because it could be Alex Perez, it could be Kai Kara-France, it could be Brandon Royval – who knows. But we’ve got to get past Bontorin first, so that’s the priority.”

Although the fight will now take place at 135 pounds due to the short-notice nature for Bontorin, Schnell said he hasn’t had to tweak much in his preparation. With Bontorin’s back against the wall having lost two straight, Schnell is expecting him to come out with a sense of urgency.

“I think it kind of worked out because Bontorin is stylistically somewhat similar,” Schnell said. “He’s not as much of a wrestler as Alex Perez, but he does offer that grappling danger. You’ve got to be aware when he closes the distance. He’s going to try and grapple. He takes the back well, so it’s kind of small adjustments. We have to work on different positioning, whereas with Alex Perez, he’s got different attacks, he’s got a great front head lock series and he’s coming at you more from a wrestling place than Bontorin is going to.

“I could see me fighting him for 15 minutes. He’s a tough guy. He’s going to come in off the heels of two losses. I think he’s going to come in motivated. I think early on, he’s going to try and put a lot of pressure on me and push into me and hurt me and put me one my back foot. But he may find that it’s more difficult, especially at ’35. It doesn’t seem like it would, but an extra five, six pounds that I walk in there with does make a difference, and he should beware. You try and step on me too hard, you might step on something that hurts, and I can see it going in many different ways. But every way I see it, it’s me winning.”

To see the full interview with Schnell, check out the video below.

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