Mike Perry had a bad weekend.
There's no way to sugarcoat what was supposed to be a huge moment for Perry after he booked a fight against the always outspoken Dillon Danis at the Duel Arena show in Orland this past Saturday night. Sadly, Danis failed to show up and dropped out of the fight, but rather than cancel his own appearance, Perry decided to take on late replacement Brandon Jenkins instead.
Early in the opening round, Perry dislocated his shoulder and ultimately suffered a TKO loss when he got blasted by a body kick and finished with punches just seconds later. There's no word on the full extent of his injuries, but Perry is likely looking at a lengthy layoff while he recovers and it's impossible to know right now when he might fight again.
BKFC president David Feldman, who has championed Perry ever since he became a crossover superstar in the bare-knuckle promotion, watched how everything unfolded after his historic event at Fenway Park in Boston this past weekend came to a close.
“Unfortunate for him,†Feldman said about Perry when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I do like Mike. It's not that I don't like Mike. I just don't like some of the things panned out, but I definitely like Mike. The problem with taking a last-minute fight like that, the other guy Brandon Jenkins, had nothing to lose at all. Nothing. So it didn't matter. Mike's shoulder popped out unfortunately for him and then he got kicked and then he got hit a few times and unfortunately he couldn't defend himself.
“Very, very risky. When you're at the top of the game like that, I don't know if I was managing him, I would have done it. But it is what it is.â€
Feldman has repeatedly stated in the past that he wants Perry to return to BKFC, but the two sides haven't reached an agreement on a future fight. In the meantime, Perry scored a huge win over Nate Diaz in the first MVP MMA card back in May before booking his fight in August.
With this new shoulder injury, Perry could potentially be looking at a long layoff and that obviously delays his return to action in any sport including bare-knuckle fighting.
“We'll see what happens with him,†Feldman said. “I don't know the injury, I didn't talk to them yet. I will talk to his team tomorrow and find out what that looks like. Maybe they don't know yet.
“But unfortunate for him, because he's trying to build a great life for his family and unfortunate that he had to take a couple of backward steps. I don't know that I would have done it but they did.â€
As far as booking Perry again after suffering a loss in MMA, Feldman isn't putting much stock in that hurting the promotion behind a potential showdown against somebody like Darren Till.
In fact, Feldman believes Perry can make everybody forget about what just happened if he comes home to BKFC where he's still the reigning “King of Violence.â€
“It's a loss but do people consider he got his ass kicked? I don't think so,†Feldman said. “I don't think it has that much effect on it. It definitely, probably decreases his value a little bit, and we're going to have to talk about it. Who's knocking on his door? It really depends. The whole negotiation's going to go around who else is knocking on his door?
“I think with a good Darren Till performance, we can get the world very [excited]. Here's what [Mike Perry] has to do ‘I'm back where I belong. I'm not doing it anymore. My MMA career was good, but it wasn't great. I'm back where I'm the f*cking king. Let me be the king.' Then if something like that happens, I think we can promote that fight.â€
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