Mike Perry isn’t here for Conor McGregor’s nonsense.
On Saturday night at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., Perry faced off with Jake Paul in a 10-round cruiserweight boxing match. Things didn’t go well for Perry, as Paul clubbed him around the ring, repeatedly dropping “The King of Violence” 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 was “fired” from BKFC.
Speaking after the fight, Perry had little patience for McGregor’s latest outburst.
“He doesn’t f*cking have a promotion,” Perry said at his post-fight press conference. “Me and him are both owners of BKFC, so he can’t fire me. We can fight in bare-knuckle. Look at me, I lost to Jake Paul. Why don’t you go fight Jake Paul in boxing with the gloves on? I think it would be worse than Conor McGregor vs. [Floyd] Mayweather.”
In a pair of since-deleted tweets, McGregor wrote the following in response to Perry’s comments.
“Perry took a pay cut to take that fight btw. It was a wish of his. Astounding. He will not be offered a return to the BKFC ring. He can do a few matches of his new Dirty Boxing thing with the MMA sparring gloves he has set up. We wish him well. Wish granted.”
“Michael, you are not any owner in BKFC. Not an iota. You have the tiniest minute dot of a share in [Triller]. The social media video app. Which is promising, in fairness. But it’s a speckle you have. You hold nothing in [BKFC]. Not an iota. And trust me, you are out, bro.”
Earlier this year, McGregor became a co-owner of BKFC, but it’s unlikely he has the power to unilaterally fire Perry, particularly given Perry is the face of the promotion. Of course, that could just be setting up a potential fight with Perry down the line. After all, the two already shared a faceoff once upon a time, and McGregor recently declared he intended to be a “player-manager” with BKFC.
If that’s the case though, it won’t be for some time. McGregor currently still has two fights remaining on his UFC deal, so any possible move to BKFC is still a ways off. But that works for Perry, who says that after the knockout loss, some time off is in order.
“Just chill with the fam and get back in the gym when I can, try to take care of my body,” Perry said. “I’m not in a hurry to go party and f*ck myself up. There’s nothing to be happy about. I should have done better, or maybe I just couldn’t. I don’t know. He was just a little too sharp, a little too fast for me. Good job to Jake Paul.”
When he does return, Perry will have no shortage of options. “Platinum” remains the biggest star in BKFC, so a return to his home promotion could be in order, or a debut in Perry’s own Dirty Boxing Championship promotion is also a possibility. There’s even one other option available: A return to MMA, to run things back with Paul in a different format.
“You saw me drop Jake on his head there with a little grappling move,” Perry said. “I got pissed off and just tossed him down. Who knows what his strategy would be? He’s a smart kid, he’d probably train with a proper strategy, but my ability to fight at him, even with smaller gloves, maybe catch him with a little bit more speed and get my hands on him, take his back or use some 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 will. Let’s fight.”
Paul partnered with PFL back in 2023 with the intention of eventually stepping into the cage at least once. That’s yet to happen though as Paul has continued to focus on boxing. He did make Nate Diaz a lucrative offer to fight in MMA, but that never came to pass, so perhaps Perry can slide into that opportunity now.
