On November 10, in the co-main event of the UFC’s anticipated return to Denver, Colorado, “Platinum” Mike Perry will step into the cage with fellow fan favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone.
This fight comes with an interesting storyline built in, as it was just weeks ago that Perry and Cowboy were training together at Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque. In fact, Cowboy even took Cerrone out for a bit of outdoor fun.
“He took me out shooting guns, he took me out surfing on his boat, it was really nice of the guy,” Perry said on Submission Radio (transcript via MMA Fighting). “Now he’s probably like, ‘Wow, look at this a**hole, he’s gonna come try and fight me now and take everything I work for.’ But he’s had all this, all this money, all this time, and we in the fight business so I’m trying to get that. I’m trying to get a damn boat too! So if you got that money, you got that notoriety, I’m gotta get it. I’m trying to come take it so I can get me a boat so I can go surfing when I want.”
While Perry clearly has quite a bit of respect for Cowboy, he’s pretty confident their fight will a bloodbath. Bloodier, if it’s even possible, than his recent slugfest with Paul Felder.
“I feel it’s gonna be a crazier version, a bloodier version of the Paul Felder-Mike Perry fight,” Perry said of the matchup.
If Mike Perry manages to win this fight with the 12th-ranked Cowboy, it will likely send him rocketing into the welterweight top 15. From there, the ever-entertaining knockout artist is hoping for fights with Colby Covington and Darren Till — the latter of whom he actually sparred with recently.
“I think that depends on how I win,” he said. “If I beat him with a vicious KO, that puts me top-15 and puts me in line for — if Till doesn’t beat Woodley [at UFC 228], then when I beat Cerrone we’re looking at a Till-Perry fight, especially after the sparring. I know they want to see that. And if [Till] does [win], maybe one before the Colby fight or I could jump right to the Colby fight. If we go off of anger issues, Colby Covington is just a little b**ch and I’ll take that fight all day. But Till would be great out of respect and skill.”
Do you think Mike Perry can get by Donald Cerrone in November? If he does, who do you want to see him fight next?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/16/2018.