The start of 2024 has been one to forget for Manel Kape, with the UFC Flyweight being forced to pull out of his scheduled headline bout against Matheus Nicolau.
They were slated to meet at UFC Vegas 91 but Nicolau will now face Alex Perez in the main event slot on April 27 at the UFC Apex.
This is not the first time Kape and Nicolau have been scheduled to meet. The pair were originally meant to square off at UFC Vegas 84 on January 13. However, the bout was pulled after Kape missed weight by three and a half pounds.
Following the official announcement the change in opponent, Kape took to Instagram to disclose reason behind the withdrawal and revealed he had to undergo surgery. In the post he said:
“This is the first time I’ve ever pull out of a fight, I broke the cartilage of my rib and I couldn’t move for a week. On Thursday last week my surgery went extremely well. Bear in mind that all my fights that got cancelled in the past was due to my opponents.
“Where I came from we used to fight for free, I’m not bragging about I’m just being honest so don’t ever think I’m like some of you guys. ALLAH IS THE GREAT”
With Kape out, the number 8 ranked Perez will look to return to winning ways as he clearly looks to remain active this year. Having struggled immensely to keep active from 2021-2023, the bout will mark Perez’ second contest in as many months. Having not fought since 2022, when he lost to the now Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, Perez made his long-awaited return to the octagon against the surging Muhammad Mokaev in March 2024. Although the result did not go his way, Perez earned 15 valuable minutes of cage time, something he has been drastically short of in recent years.
The fight will be the first time fans have seen Nicolau compete in over a year. After building a solid six fight between 2019-2022, the Brazilian came up short in his only contest of 2023, with Brandon Royval stopping him in the very first round of their contest. With the rest of the division relatively tied up with either upcoming fights or ranked athletes sidelined due to injury, the main event bout could prove as the perfect time for the victor to move themselves into contention to face the winner of UFC 301 main event bout between Alexandre Pantoja and Steve Erceg.
