Mike Perry has recently reasserted his King of Violence status in his BKFC return, but a particular UFC card for 2026 would pique his interest in an MMA return. Perry defeated Jeremy Stephens in the headliner of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship’s inaugural foray into New Jersey at BKFC 82. ‘Platinum’ dropped Stephens multiple times in the bout en route to halting him in the fifth round, with Perry maintaining his spotless ledger in bare-knuckle fighting in the process.
The biggest star in bare-knuckle boxing does seem intrigued about donning the small gloves again for an opportunity on a massively hyped card for June 2026. Interestingly enough, his recent BKFC opponent, Jeremy Stephens, did a one-off bout with the UFC prior to his BKFC fight with Perry. This gives some precedent to the idea that some sort of deal could possibly be facilitated for Perry’s services between BKFC and UFC.
When offering up his vision for what a return to mixed martial arts could look like for him, Perry said [via MMA Fighting],
“I would do MMA. I would go back to MMA. I want to fight on the USA, UFC White House card. Who’s more American than ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry? Let’s go. I need a little training, healing time because that was 12 weeks [of a training camp]. That was 12 weeks of performance on Oct. 4. I’ve got to get back in the flow of things.”
Mike Perry has a game, potential future adversary in Conor McGregor
Mike Perry stood tall in the BKFC ring in another impressive performance with Conor McGregor, indicating his hunger to test skills with the ‘Platinum’ pugilist someday. The saga between BKFC’s biggest star and the partial owner of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship has invoked some comparisons of Perry vs. McGregor being tantamount to the ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon of gloveless combat.
It seemed like the initial bad blood stemmed from McGregor claiming Perry was fired from BKFC after the latter lost a gloved boxing bout to Jake Paul. Amid the BKFC 82 press lead-up for Perry’s promotional return, the tensions were high with him and McGregor as the two frequently exchanged tense words.
While McGregor showed a certain level of respect to Perry during the post-fight interviews, ‘The Notorious’ indicated he would “love to do it” with the King of Violence inside the BKFC ring. Conor McGregor still has a pair of fights left on his UFC contract and has not fought since 2021, when he broke his leg during a trilogy clash with Dustin Poirier.