While Mike Perry has been somewhat subdued ahead of UFC 245, he’s hoping to make Friday’s face-offs something special.
Las Vegas, NV — Platinum Mike Perry (13-5) is one of the true characters of mixed martial arts. Always entertaining, inside and more often than not outside of the cage. At UFC 245, he returns opposite Geoff Neal — a fighter yet to taste defeat inside the octagon.
Cageside Press spoke to Perry at Thursday’s UFC 245 media day, where he spoke about the match-up and how it all came to be.
“I really never know how these fights come together, how they choose who and what makes a match-up,” said Perry. “I heard, they were talking to me this week saying he called me out, I didn’t even know that. They just call me with a name on the contract. I say yes every time.”
It’s certainly an interesting match-up. Beyond his four wins in the UFC, Neal is on a six-fight win streak. Perry, meanwhile, is coming off a loss to Vicente Luque. And he recognizes that while he’s playing the veteran role in this bout, Neal has done something Perry himself has not.
“This up-and-comer has done something that I haven’t had a chance to do inside the UFC, which is put a four-fight win streak together,” said Perry. “He’s 4-0 in the UFC, this is my 12th UFC fight.”
“I’m hoping to show my experience here and make him look like a young up-and-comer, and me look like a vet,” Perry added.
The evolution of Mike Perry’s fight style, and mental game, has continued ahead of UFC 245. Perry used to get in his opponent’s face far more in the past, taking on a more antagonistic role. That really hasn’t happened this time around.
Asked why, Perry answered that “maybe it’s just because all the expended energy during such a hard weight cut. The weight cuts are always difficult. You have low energy, so to expend energy when you don’t really have it — you want to save it, conserve it for the fight on Saturday.”
Don’t fret, fans of the chaos Perry seems to always have around him, however. “I still try to do entertaining things. People like to watch me weigh in and face off. I’m still hoping to do something crazy this Friday at face-offs.”
Coming from a fighter who broke his nose when his face went through drywall prior to the Vicente Luque fight — where it broke once again — that’s saying something.
Watch our full interview with Mike Perry ahead of UFC 245 above!
