Paris, France — The talk ahead of the women’s featherweight fight between Stephanie Egger and Ailin Perez at UFC Paris was mostly about Perez’s dance moves.
Specifically, Perez had done a little twerking during Friday’s ceremonial weigh-ins, something she’s done ahead of numerous fights outside of the UFC. Still, it was new to the UFC audience, and Perez made further waves by calling out champ Amanda Nunes ahead of the fight, tagging her in posts and screaming “championship weight” on the scale Friday morning.
It was Egger coming away with a rear-naked choke submission win on Saturday, however. After which she addressed her opponent’s antics, speaking to media outlets at the Accor Arena including Cageside Press.
“I have a judo background. Yeah, we have — I learn respect for my opponents. If she wants to twerk she can twerk, but when we’re in the cage it’s all about fighting and not twerking.”
“I don’t like to talk much, I prefer to go in the cage and fight,” Egger added.
There was more to Perez’s pre-fight antics than just a bit of dancing, mind you. There was the idea that a fighter with zero UFC fights was targeting a dominant champion. Perhaps she was looking past Egger, but the Swiss fighter wasn’t bothered by it.
“It doesn’t matter for me. I just focus on myself,” Egger told Cageside Press. “If she wants to do it, she can do it, but my focus is on myself.”
Next week, there’s another featherweight fight on deck, as Danyelle Wolf is set to take on Norma Dumont at UFC 279. Egger is open to the winner of that, or anything really. Even stepping in short notice.
“Yeah it doesn’t matter. If somebody falls out, I’m ready.”
Having improved to 8-3 on the night, Egger explained that what she’s looking for now is experience.
“I want to fight as much as possible, because I need more cage experience to get comfortable in the cage. So I’m ready next week, in two weeks. I just want to fight as much as possible,” she stated.
She’s open to any weight class as a result, as long as she can make the weight. “It doesn’t matter, I can do flyweight, bantamweight, or featherweight. I just want to fight. That’s important for me.”
Watch the full UFC Paris post-fight press scrum with Stephanie Egger above.
