After briefly putting MMA dream on hold, Jose Perez now eyes title shot with CFFC 99 win

Jose Perez remembers sitting on the couch, watching the UFC and thinking to himself, "I bet I could do that."

Most people in that position are probably a bit delusional. Perez, however, was not. This was a dream he had held since he was a child.

"I started in jiu-jitsu when I was 9, and then I started competing just after my 10th birthday," Perez said. "Once you hit high school, everybody is going to try football and all these other little things, but I was only really drawn to combat sports. So I did jiu-jitsu, and then I tried wrestling."

Perez admits he enjoyed the jiu-jitsu much more than wrestling, but he was also watching MMA and realized he would need to be skilled in both if he really wanted to compete in the sport.

"They talk about these guys that back in the day used to be wrestlers turned MMA fighters, or boxers turned fighters," Perez said. "You have these styles, but Georges St-Pierre was the prototype. I always knew that I was going to be a fighter, so I did the wrestling – not necessarily because it was my first and foremost love, but I always knew that MMA was going to be at the end of this road for me, so I knew that was a really important facet of martial arts and I needed to like it."

Perez continued chasing his dream, and in 2017 made his amateur debut. Things couldn't have gone much better: Three fights, three stoppage wins, all in the course of just six months.

Then that journey took a very large detour.

"I ended up having a bunch of babies – well, two babies back-to-back, and that can definitely slow you down in the fight game," Perez said. "So we started worrying about the financial side of things – tried to get a house together, put a life together for them, because I do love fighting, but at the amateur level and the regional scene, that wasn't really going to pay for too much."

So Perez got a job that paid the bills and went about building a family. It made him happy, but that childhood dream never faded away.

"To be honest, I wasn't really sure if I was going to ever turn pro," Perez said. "There was something that I was missing, something I had stepped away from. It was hurting me. It was time away, and it was bothering me. I felt like there were some stones left unturned.

"I'd watch the UFC fights like everybody else and sit there on the couch, and you know, you get those guys like, 'Oh, I know I could do that,' and I actually did. I brushed myself off three years later, and I got back in the gym."

Thus far, it's seemed like a rather wise decision. In just 11 months as a professional, Perez has built a 4-0 record, including three first-round submission wins.

Perez (4-0) looks to build on that record in the headlining bout of Saturday's CFFC 99 event, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from Fitz Tunica Casino & Hotel in Mississippi, where he'll take on fellow undefeated prospect DeAndre Anderson (4-0).

"I love it," Perez said of the matchup. "That mystique, that undefeated mystique, that's something special. When a guy comes in and they have zero losses, it's an eerie feeling, like it almost feels like it can't be done. But, you know, obviously I bring that same mystique."

With another win, Perez would likely be a frontrunner to compete for CFFC's featherweight title, which was left vacant when former champion Pat Sabatini was signed by the UFC. It's a prestigious title that Perez is certainly eyeing moving forward.

"The approach thus far has been a sprint, so I'm going to say we're going to stick with that theme, that it's going to be a sprint," Perez said. "We're trying to go to the top as fast as we can, but reasonably fast. So my next step, I'm still keeping my head kind of right at my peers where I'm at right now.

"I think the next step, if I do get this win – which I will get this win – the next step would be for a title shot."

From the couch to the CFFC title in one year would be a pretty remarkable run, but Perez has already shown that he's capable of remarkable things. Now in this headlining role on UFC FIGHT PASS, the 26-year-old prospect is ready to shine.

"I'm guessing they're trying to make sense of this 145-pound division now that Pat Sabatini is up in the big show and trying to figure out who's ready for the title shot," Perez said. "I definitely am going to take this as an opportunity to try to prove that I'm one of those guys and that I need to be in the red corner for that fight."