“I’m constantly breaking down everything,” he said. “I get very annoyed when I go to people’s houses to watch fights and you hear people going, ‘Oh, &*&* him up,’ or ‘Oh, he’s a $%$%$, he got hit in the balls.’ They don’t understand. (Laughs) I’ve been in there. Knock on wood I haven’t been poked in the eye too badly. I’ve been hit in the groin a few times, but people don’t understand that and it does bother me a lot. So usually I’m at home watching them by myself. I’m breaking down fights and I pick up things. I pick up trends from fights, and I like to see what they do wrestling, jiu-jitsu and striking wise. Everybody’s evolving, so I like to see what they’re doing and what their game plan is. I like to study fights like that.”

But is he still getting invites?

“I do, but I’d rather just stay home,” laughs Perez, who’s had a lot of time to break down fights during his nearly year-long layoff from the Octagon. This weekend, he makes his first start since a March 2019 win over Mark De La Rosa when he faces Jordan Espinosa, but don’t assume that Perez is bitter about missing fight time due to injury. In fact, he sounds more positive than he ever has.

“I’m always positive, man,” he said. “No need to be negative.”