There’s a common saying in combat sports that what happens in the gym, stays in the gym.
However, that’s becoming less and less common these days as teammates and sparring partners end up fighting each other on a much more regular basis, which usually means past private training sessions become very public. That’s the case with Mike Perry and Jake Paul, who actually only sparred together for six rounds several years ago, but that session has become the stuff of legends, especially as they prepared to fight on Saturday.
For Paul, sparring a savage like Perry gave him the confidence that he was making the right choice to go from social media influencer to boxing enthusiast. Meanwhile, Perry was admittedly impressed by what he saw out of Paul that day, even if he doesn’t spend much time dwelling on it all these years later.
That being said, Perry knew that sparring Paul in the past was going to come up constantly after he replaced Mike Tyson in the fight coming up on July 20.
“Let them do it,” Perry told MMA Fighting about the narrative built around that sparring session. “It’s a good reason for both of us to fight each other. It was a seed I planted long ago when I told him I didn’t want his little paycheck for showing up to spar, that happened after we sparred.
“When they told me going into the sixth, ‘This would be the last round Mike,’ I was like, ‘OK, I thought he had an eight-round fight? Should we do eight rounds?’ The gap was closing on him. The ‘Platinum’ pressure builds up over time.”
Perry recounted one particular moment during that session when he realized Paul was learning and adapting on the job, which was something he didn’t expect when they first started throwing hands.
As a veteran with far more fight experience on his résumé, Perry also made some necessary changes to then turn the tables on Paul.
“I remember from when I sparred Jake, the first 20 seconds of the sparring way back in the day, I came out with this good combination I had back then where I [throw] the one-two and then I throw the three [hook] to the body and, boom, I caught him,” Perry said. “Left hook to the liver. Twenty seconds in he [grimaces] and goes, ‘Good shot, it was a good body shot.’ I kind of lightened up a little bit, and then boom, he kind of hit me with some of those sniper shots from the outside. I’m like, ‘OK, time to pick it back up.’
“I give him credit because he adjusted and I wasn’t able to get that body shot back in on him that day. I remember that. So I understand that he’s going to adjust to some things.”
That sparring session happened when Perry was still a UFC fighter, so he was nowhere near the boxer he is today after turning his full attention to bare-knuckle boxing over the past few years. He has since also scored a win over veteran boxer Michael Seals in 2021 in an adjusted rule set for Triad Combat.
There’s little doubt that Paul has evolved as well, which is why Perry is expecting the unexpected when they meet again on Saturday.
“He might start slow,” Perry said. “He might get better as the fight goes on. He might try to carry his weight or put it on me. I expect him to have no choice but to run because I’m the smaller guy. I’ll cut the short angles, I’ll slip side to side and take the angle around him and give him the old reach-around like he said he would give to me.”
Ahead of the fight, Paul has continuously touted himself as a future champion, but his résumé as a boxer still faces constant criticism. The only opponent on his record with equal size, age, and skill counts as Paul’s only loss against Tommy Fury by split decision in 2023.
Prior to the Perry matchup getting booked, Paul was supposed to face Tyson, who was a ferocious heavyweight champion in his day but also just celebrated his 58th birthday.
Paul has largely decorated his record with fights against UFC veterans such as Nate Diaz, Anderson Silva, and Tyron Woodley, with his past two wins coming against journeymen boxers who both got obliterated inside the first round.
Despite entering this fight as the underdog, Perry expects all of those factors from Paul’s past to rob him of the praise he should receive with a win, but he knows just how much this fight means to him.
“When I beat him, they’re going to take it away from me,” Perry said. “They’re going to say, ‘We knew it, Jake wasn’t ready for an opponent like this,’ but you’ve got to look at the stats. I’m 0-1 as a pro boxer. Yes, I have about 30 professional fights, so I had so much success in the MMA world and now bare-knuckle boxing. People aren’t giving bare-knuckle boxing the credit it deserves.
“But Jake is 9-1 in pro boxing and he’s fought about two or three real fighters. I think experience, everything here is lined up perfectly. I’m going to give Jake a nose job.”
