Mike Perry isn’t here for Conor McGregor’s nonsense.
On Saturday night at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, Perry faced Jake Paul in a 10-round heavyweight boxing match. Things didn’t go well for Perry, as Paul pummeled him around the ring, repeatedly knocking “The King of Violence” down before finally stopping him in the sixth round.
It was a tough loss for Perry, and to add insult to injury, BKFC co-owner McGregor took to social media shortly after the finish to attack Perry, mocking Perry’s newly created ‘Dirty Boxing’ promotion and proclaiming that Perry had been ‘fired’ from BKFC.
Speaking after the fight, Perry had little patience for McGregor’s latest outburst.
“He don’t have a promotion, f***ing,” Perry said at his post-fight press conference. “Me and him both own BKFC, so he can’t fire me. We can fight bare-knuckle. Look at me, I lost to Jake Paul. Why don’t you go fight Jake Paul in a glove fight? I think that would be worse than Conor McGregor against (Floyd) Mayweather.”
In a pair of since-deleted tweets, McGregor wrote the following in response to Perry’s comments.
“Perry took a pay cut for this fight. That was his wish. It’s unbelievable. He won’t be asked to return to the BKFC ring. He’ll get to do a few fights of his new Dirty Boxing thing with the MMA sparring gloves he’s developed. We wish him the best of luck. His wish has been granted.”
“Michael, you’re not a shareholder in BKFC. Not one iota. You have the tiniest stake in (Triller). The social video app. Which is promising, in all fairness. But it’s a small stake you have. You own nothing in (BKFC). Not one iota. And trust me, you’re out, bro.”
Earlier this year, McGregor became a part-owner of BKFC, but it’s unlikely he has the power to unilaterally fire Perry, especially since Perry is the face of the promotion. Of course, that could just set up a potential fight with Perry. After all, the two have already shared a showdown once, and McGregor recently said he intends to become a “player-manager” with BKFC.
If that’s the case, it won’t be right away. McGregor has two fights left on his UFC contract, so a potential move to BKFC is still a ways off. But it’s working for Perry, who says that after his knockout loss, some rest is in order.
“I’m going to relax with my family and get back to the gym when I can, I’m trying to take care of my body,” Perry said. “I’m not in a rush to go party and get wasted. There’s nothing to be happy about. I should have done better, or maybe I didn’t. I don’t know. He was just a little too sharp, a little too fast for me. Kudos to Jake Paul.”
When he does return, Perry won’t be short on options. “Platinum” remains BKFC’s biggest star, so a return to his original promotion could be in order, or a debut in Perry’s own promotion, Dirty Boxing Championship, is also a possibility. There’s even another option available: a return to MMA, to restart things with Paul in a different format.
“You saw me drop Jake on his head with a little grappling move,” Perry said. “I got mad and just threw him to the ground. Who knows what his strategy would be? He’s a smart kid, he’d probably train with proper strategy, but my ability to fight him, even with smaller gloves, maybe catch him with a little more speed and put my hands on him, take his back or use a little jiu-jitsu. If that’s something he wanted to do, I’d be willing to do it. These other guys didn’t want to, but I’ll do it. Let’s fight.”
Paul joined the PFL in 2023 with the intention of one day stepping into the cage at least once. But that hasn’t happened yet, as Paul has continued to focus on boxing. He made Nate Diaz a lucrative offer to fight in MMA, but it never came to fruition, so maybe Perry can seize that opportunity now.
