Atos black belt Mike Perez made it to the final at KASAI Pro 2 on Saturday night in Brooklyn, NY. Some, however, have been questioning if he should have had that opportunity due to his alleged stalling in his qualifying match with Craig Jones.

The outspoken Perez was quick to defend his strategy in our post-competition interview (see below); however, he took to Instagram after to further clarify and defend his performance in New York City.

What people don’t realize is to be able to weather the storm of leg lockers like Craig Jones requires a lot of skill and reflex. Multiple times in that match I would walk forward with my lead leg and I would go into the guard, not even putting my knee down. I was inviting Reverse De La Riva with the knee shield, which is a big HQ of attack for a lot of guard players.

I think that match was an all out war. It started off with me shooting right off the bat. I pulled guard after that. Attacked a really nasty wrist lock that would have put anybody away. The boy [Jones] is just too savage to tap to something like that.

Then the suspense of me coming on top and going into one of the best guard players in the game right now guard, where he’s broken off so many individuals. I’m having to navigate around that for the first time. Last time I rolled with this guy was 2013!

Oh and I forget to mention, even when I was on bottom I was trying to invert and go on his legs! He just smelled that and defended appropriately, just like I was doing! JUST LIKE I WAS DOING!

And he even got under me a couple times and I looked into the face of death and I said NO. I said NO! That’s all it is. My leg fighting, when he got under my legs I started leg fighting appropriately. OK? I’m like Mayweather slippin’ Canelo. That’s it.

He even got a nice toe hold attempt, right? Which they gave him a point for. And what did I do off that? I countered it using my [savviness] and started attacking the back…

And what happened at the end of the match? 30 seconds left he comes up on a single leg, tries to take me down. [I'm] confident in my base and my defense. I was floatin’ on him. I knew I had a tough match the next round. Ok? So I wasn’t trying to give up position just to get a couple more “ooooos.”

What you guys witnessed on Saturday night at KASAI Pro 2 was a chess match between two of the most exciting no-gi grapplers in the game right now. You guys should be thanking me… . - Mike Perez (@pichaelmerez)

Watch the match here and let us know what you think.