Mike Perry started his climb back up the welterweight division with a bloody split-decision victory over Paul Felder at UFC 226 on Saturday in Las Vegas.
Felder had been scheduled to fight James Vick next week in Boise, Idaho, but when Vick was called to fill the gap against Justin Gaethje in August, he pleaded to step in against Perry, who had also lost his original opponent, Yancy Medeiros.
Though that meant a trip up to welterweight after Felder had racked up three consecutive victories at lightweight, he was willing to risk it.
Though he didn’t come out on the winning end of the decision, Felder gave everything he had against his larger opponent.
Felder and Perry were both aggressive from the opening bell, but clashed heads in their first exchange, opening cuts on both men. That didn’t slow them down for the remainder of the round, though, as each got his shots in on the other. Perry landed some solid elbows and Felder showed crisp boxing and landed a spinning backfist.
Perry opened strong in the second frame, scooping Felder above his head and slamming him to the canvas, but couldn’t keep him there. Quickly back on their feet, Perry landed another powerful elbow, the same as he had in the opening round.
Coming off of the fence, Felder kept pressing forward with his boxing, which eventually opened the path to several oblique kicks to Perry’s lead leg.