This December 16, on the main card of the amazingly stacked UFC Winnipeg card, red hot welterweight contender “Platinum” Mike Perry will face the biggest test of his career in the division’s 10th-ranked fighter Santiago Ponzinibbio.
If Perry is able to take out Ponzinibbio – which is assuredly no easy task – he’s got a few welterweight stars in mind for his next few fights. The Platinum one broke it down on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio.
“When I beat Santiago, Till is above me in the rankings, so I don’t see why [that fight won’t happen],” Perry said of Darren Till, who called him out after he knocked out Donald Cerrone last month.
“He’s above me, and I don’t care if I move up one spot, two spots, three spots at a time,” Perry continued. “I jumped up about 10 or 15 spots and got to fight Ellenberger, and then I didn’t necessarily move up all the way up there [into the rankings], but I kicked him out. Then I was supposed to fight Thiago Alves, who wasn’t necessarily a ranked opponent, but someone who had some popularity, and has a crew behind him that thinks he is a capable athlete, and could beat almost anyone on a good night for him, but then that guy didn’t show up, so we got [late replacement Alex Reyes].”
Till, of course, isn’t the only option ahead of Perry.
“We’ve got Rafael Dos Anjos and Robbie Lawler on the [Winnipeg] card, in the main event that night,” he said. “We all know that I called out Robbie Lawler. We’ll see who wins that fight, and then of course everybody wants me to smash Colby Covington now, but he can get somebody else. It doesn’t matter if they give me that fight. I’ll take it, whatever, I’ll finish him quickly, and then move on as well. Everybody wants to see the Darren Till fight. We can make that happen, and then the Platinum One versus the Chosen One [Tyron Woodley] is definitely on the list because that belt has to come home with me, so we’re going to make that happen.”
Who do you think Mike Perry should fight if he defeats Santiago Ponzinibbio in Winnipeg?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 22/11/2017.