UFC 167 results, photos, gifs: Well-rounded Erik Perez rebounds against Edwin Figueroa

LAS VEGAS – Erik Perez was in need of a rebound fight following the first loss of his UFC career. Consider the job done against Edwin Figueroa.

Perez landed eight takedowns and put a well-rounded attack into place over the course of 15 minutes to get a unanimous-decision sweep of the judges’ scorecards.

The bantamweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC 167 event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It aired on FOX Sports 1 following additional prelims on MMAjunkie and ahead of the main card on pay-per-view.

Figueroa landed a good combination early after eating a Perez kick, but Perez answered back with a kick up high. Seconds later, though, Perez landed a massive kick, but way too low. Figueroa fell to his knees instantly and was given time to recover from the low blow. Perez was warned by referee Kim Winslow to control his “weapons,” but on the restart, he wasn’t shy about going after the inside leg kick.

Perez dragged the fight briefly to the canvas 90 seconds into the round, then landed a good knee when the two poped back up. A front kick to the body from Perez put Figueroa on his back. With two minutes left, Perez ate a kick to the body, but swept Figueroa off his feet and got on top.

A big right hand from Perez early in the second took Figueroa off his feet. But when he got back up, he came out swinging. But a minute in, Perez changed levels and dropped down. He picked Figueroa up and carried him a few feet for a big slam. On the ground, Perez landed punches without much trouble. With two minutes left, and back on his feet, Figueroa landed some solid punches – but that just led to Perez getting his sixth takedown of the fight.

Figueroa stayed patient in the third, and that may have been the wrong move. After just missing a spinning back kick, Perez got his seventh takedown. He worked for an arm-triangle choke before jumping to side control with two minutes left. Figueroa got back to his feet with about a minute left, but Perez sat him right back down. He stayed after a choke, then stood up with 45 seconds left. He hurt Figueroa with a counter right hand, but couldn’t get the finish.

“I was very well prepared tonight,” Perez said. “My game plan was to go toe to toe and win the fight round by round. I’m very emotional after this win because I feel like I did what I was supposed to do and I was rewarded for it.”

Perez (14-5 MMA, 4-1 UFC) rebounded from the first loss of his UFC career in August. Figueroa (9-4 MMA, 2-4 UFC) lost for the third straight time in 2013 and could see his UFC career in jeopardy.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 167 results include:

• Erik Perez def. Edwin Figueroa via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Jason High def. Anthony Lapsley via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Sergio Pettis def. Will Campuzano via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28
• Gian Villante def. Cody Donovan via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 1:22

For complete coverage of UFC 167, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

John Morgan contributed to this report on-site in Las Vegas.