Mike Perry is the king of bare-knuckle fighting but he’s not opposed to returning to his roots in MMA, especially for the right opportunity.
After dismantling Jeremy Stephens in the main event at BKFC 82 this past weekend, Perry addressed his future with several possible fights awaiting him in the future, including eventually facing Conor McGregor with no gloves on. There’s also a long rumored matchup with Darren Till that seems interesting but Perry admits many of his biggest foes want to put conditions on facing him — most notably showing fear about throwing down in a bare-knuckle fight.
But Perry’s quick to point out that his first rise to fame came through MMA when he earned a reputation as one of the most exciting fighters on the entire UFC roster. In fact, Perry wouldn’t mind having a reunion with the UFC for the right opportunity.
“I would do MMA. I would go back to MMA,” Perry told MMA Fighting. “I want to fight on the USA, UFC White House card. Who’s more American than ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry? Let’s go.
“I need a little training, healing time because that was 12 weeks [of a training camp]. That was 12 weeks of performance on Oct. 4. I’ve got to get back in the flow of things.”
Perry has floated the idea about possibly returning to the UFC in the past but his desire to fight there again has never actually come to fruition.
This time, the 34-year-old veteran believes the stakes for a card as big as the one happening on the White House lawn could lure him back for at least one more fight.
In fact, Stephens returned for a single fight in the UFC when the promotion landed in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa before then booking his matchup against Perry this past weekend. Perry doesn’t see why he couldn’t do the same exact thing.
“Yeah that would be a cool one to do it on,” Perry said about coming back to the UFC. “Y’all got to pay me for that, too. But come on. Conor’s talking about $100 million to get on the White House card. We’ll give me a couple [million]. I’ll be good.”
Perhaps the biggest thing working against Perry is the name he’s built for himself in BKFC where he’s not only the face of the promotion, but he’s become a household name thanks to putting on some of the most violent and entertaining bare-knuckle fights.
There’s no better example of that than what Perry did in his return to BKFC this past weekend after spending nearly a year and a half away.
Perry immediately engaged in a blistering back-and-forth exchange with Stephens that produced fireworks from the first second until the last. Obviously, he put on some instant classics when he was on the UFC roster as well, but it’s tough to deny that Perry feels almost made for a bare-knuckle fight.
“It was good to be back,” Perry said about his BKFC return. “I had a lot of fun in there. Jeremy was tough. He met the occasion. But he was too tough for his own good at times. Some people were saying like the Rocky movie ‘throw the dang towel’ after the second knockdown.
“But that’s props to Jeremy. Just happy to be back on the road of recovery and getting my health in order and get myself back on a diet and in shape.”
Perry admits there was actually a moment during that fight when he wondered why the referee was allowing Stephens to continue. The bout was eventually stopped after Stephens had suffered six knockdowns.
“It came to a point where he was just looking for survival but he still landed the right hand all the way to the end,” Perry said. “There was just no combinations from him. He couldn’t two consecutive shots together. It would just be one big right hand. I don’t know what the heck I was doing not getting out of the way of that thing more often but I guess it’s easy when I just lift a shoulder, it doesn’t bother me too much. I know that eventually that stance that I’m holding is going to have them dipping into some stuff that they’re not going to like.”
“I kind of looked at the ref at the end and was like ‘come on!’ Like what do you want me to do? It’s a very fitting ‘King of Violence.’ To win that fight was good. I think Jeremy’s doing all right. I sent him a video, he sent me one back.”
Coming off that win, Perry is keeping his options open, which includes his interest in the UFC White House card as well as another bare-knuckle fight in BKFC.
“Just a matter of time until we find out what’s going to happen,” Perry said. “Mr. [David] Feldman told me it’s looking later [for BKFC] so I’ve just got to work on myself right now, and I get to talk about the game. I get to stay in the polls, talking about combat sports, what’s to come. There we go.”
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