In dealing with defeat, Mike Perry has focuses – but Conor McGregor’s declaration of his BKFC firing is not one of them.
“He doesn’t f*cking have a promotion because me and him are both owners of BKFC,” Perry said during a post-fight news conference after boxing Jake Paul. “He can’t fire me. We can fight bareknuckle. Look at me. I lost to Jake Paul. Why don’t you go fight Jake Paul and box him with the gloves on. I think it would be worse than Conor McGregor vs. (Floyd) Mayweather.”
Following Perry’s TKO loss Saturday to Jake Paul, McGregor, a member of the BKFC ownership group, went off, targeting Perry on X.
“Hey Mike, you’re released, and you can go and compete in your smelly dirty boxing championship thing, the smell of it, good luck,” McGregor wrote. “You’re fired.”
In another X post that has since been deleted, McGregor also insulted Perry’s newly-announced promotion, Dirty Boxing.
Perry has served as one of BKFC’s biggest stars, and outside of McGregor’s insults, there has been no indication that relationship will end any time soon.
Regardless of whether his next fight is in gloved or ungloved boxing, Perry is focused on improvement. The loss Saturday at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. was a major disappointment.
“There’s nothing to be happy about,” Perry said. “I should have done better, or maybe I just couldn’t. I don’t know. He was a little too sharp, a little too fast for me. But good job. … I use (the loss) as a mental health thing. I train in the gym to be a better person.”
Though Perry and McGregor have had their fair share of rivalries, their insults have not been previously directed at one another, though the two engaged in a playful faceoff at BKFC 41 in April 2023. Prior to Saturday’s fight, McGregor said he was rooting for Perry to defeat Paul.
