Mike Perry is moving on from bare-knuckle boxing.
Since leaving the UFC in 2021, Perry has essentially been the poster boy for bare-knuckle combat — more specifically, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC). However, after returning to the MMA world with two gloved bouts since May, Perry confirmed on Tuesday's edition of "The Ariel Helwani Show" that his time with BKFC is over.
"It's good to get that out. I kind of had some feelings about it," Perry told Uncrowned. "It's like the 'BK cheat code,' man. That bare-knuckle stuff is like a cheat code, I guess. Those two-minute rounds, I was good at it. It was fun. I made some noise doing it, and I'm ready for another challenge.
"So, I think MMA is in my foreseeable future, and I'm going to give it my best shot."
Perry, 35, has been primarily fixated on the art of gloveless combat for most of the past five years and has found great success. "Platinum" went undefeated in his six BKFC appearances, culminating in winning the promotion’s "King of Violence" title after defeating former UFC champions Eddie Alvarez and Luke Rockhold.
At MVP’s debut MMA event on Netflix this past May, Perry competed in MMA for the first time since his final UFC fight against Daniel Rodriguez in April 2021. Perry scored a second-round doctor's stoppage TKO win over seasoned veteran Nate Diaz in a lopsided affair, before he took on Brandon Jenkins on short notice at Duel: Arena in August.
Unfortunately for Perry, he suffered a shoulder injury mid-fight with Jenkins, leading to a first-round stoppage loss. Nonetheless, Perry said Tuesday that he expects to be back in the MMA world for at least the next two years, as he teased his next move without sharing details just yet.
"I'm going to give something a good shot here,” Perry said, “and just a couple years, at least I won't be going back [to BKFC], then I got some fights I'll have to focus on.”
Perry’s injury against Jenkins appeared to be a dislocated shoulder in the moment, and it effectively was. Perry noted that he sustained a partial labral tear, which caused the joint to pop out during an exchange with Jenkins on the ropes.
Perry doesn't expect to need surgery, as his doctors told him the muscles around the partial tear are still strong and supporting the area well.
"It was hard to go through, I guess. I'm doing OK," Perry said. "I was just at training [today], sparring with the guys. I got some rounds in. Still not doing as many rounds as I want, but that's not because of the shoulder. That's more like, I don't know, I'm slowly building. I'm super humble now. The game has humbled me, and I thought I was on this — I was trying to be great, and it's like, I saw these things: You wouldn't have moved if I didn't give you something to make you.
"So now it's like, kind of less pressure. I just want to be my healthiest, be my best, and people can say what they want to me. I don't want to get too angry about anything anymore.
"I was trying to calm down when my shoulder went out in the ring," Perry added. "I was trying to let them pull on it, and it just didn't seem to feel better anywhere."
Heading into Duel: Arena, Perry was supposed to face Dillon Danis. Or at least, he was until Danis withdrew two days out from fight night. The withdrawal was just another among several in Danis' combat sports career.
Despite that checkered history, Perry still believed throughout the build-up that he and Danis would fight. Now that they didn't, he’s trying his best to refrain from carrying animosity. Yet Perry also said that if he sees Danis, it won't be a friendly encounter.
"There's no professional business being done between me and that guy. I was upset with that guy," Perry said. "But maybe I shouldn't be, right? Like I said, I've got to learn to take things with a grain of salt.
"Everyone said he was going to do that. I was like, 'No way, no way, no way. He's coming, he's coming.' But he didn't dig into me in a nasty way and then not show up, with his trash talk and this and that. So, I can't be upset about stuff I can't control.
"You never know what's going to happen tomorrow," Perry continued. "Yesterday is history, tomorrow's a mystery, and today is a gift, or something like that. So, see, I don't want to snitch on myself prior to anything that could happen.
“Is he supposed to wrestle for RAF [this Friday]? I could go viral and go down there. These are thoughts I have, but I'm not going to do it. But if I saw Dillon Danis, we’ve gotta fight in the street. We’ve just gotta have a fight at this point, for free. Any parking lot. If I took a pay cut [to fight Jenkins after Danis withdrew], I'll pay cut myself. ... If I see him, we gotta squabble, bro."