There is only one ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry.
Though to be fair, two might cause the MMA world to explode. After all, Perry (13-6) is one of the sport’s characters, a throwback to another time perhaps. He’s uncensored, raw, and generally blunt both in his performances, and on the mic. This weekend, the popular pugilist known for his knockout power will throw down with Mickey Gall.
In the process, he’s eschewed coaches and cornermen. Well, somewhat. “I am going to have a coach in my corner. But that coach happens to be my girlfriend. She’ll be coaching.”
That’s been the talk of the internet of late. Perry dropping his coaches and having only Latory Gonzalez, his current flame, in his corner. Previously, Perry’s ex-wife, Danielle Nickerson, had also cornered him, but alongside other coaching staff. UFC on ESPN 12 will be something of a new experiment with that in mind.
Ahead of the fight, Perry reportedly ran his own training camp. “I can’t say it was much different than any other training camp I’ve ever had. Got my road work in, got good food in my diet, drank a lot of water. Punching the air. I had some training partners and some bodies to work with that were down to listen and do it my way. And I’m going to go in there Saturday night and do it my way.”
Perry split his time between Texas and Florida, and included anime in his preparation. “I watched a lot of episodes of Naruto, I watched the whole three seasons of [Avatar: The Last Airbender],” he said. “That was good for mental training.”
Apparently, trips to Universal Studies, Islands of Adventure, and elsewhere in Florida also count as training. Plus good healthy food. “Lots of big streaks.”
Yet he assured the media that his camp hadn’t looked much different than in the past. “Fighting is simple,” he explained. “Road work, it’s being prepared for whatever. At any time. It’s clean eating, drinking water, cutting the weight, being in shape, and being mentally fit, like how relaxed you can be in a dangerous situation.”
Perry seemed to take issue with past coaches’ methodology, adding that “there’s no need to go put myself in these silly situations every day, trying to train like I don’t already know what I’m supposed to do. I let people drown out what I knew to do from years ago, when I broke into the UFC. And I handled my business. That was all me then, I used to be a coach at a UFC gym.” It’s when he stopped teaching those classes, and stopped listening to himself, that things went down hill, Perry said.
So what are his expectations against Gall, with Perry himself fully in the driver’s seat ahead of this bout?
“I expect to get paid,” Perry stressed. “I’m sure he’s trained hard. Good for you, bud. You’ll have a good life. You’ll be healthy. Eat another salad. That’s not going to fix your broken jaw that you get this Saturday.”
Gall has claimed that Perry’s skills have regressed over his last few fights. “You know I don’t know what regressed means!” Perry retorted when presented with that theory. With the argument laid out for him, however, Perry wondered if Gall hadn’t “fell off the bike a couple times.”
The pair’s welterweight fight serves as the co-main event at UFC on ESPN 12. Perry has spent the week cutting weight, and has lamented how good food seems at the moment. “It’s not fair, because when you don’t have to be at a certain weight, you’re not hungry. When you do eat, the food’s alright. But when you diet— I had sparking water earlier, and I thought it was just the greatest thing.”
Informed that Gall had gone on record saying he was a “lowkey Mike Perry fan,” Perry seemed taken aback. “Where’s all that sh*t you was talking, boy? Keep that same energy!”
And while he’s called Gall a “weak-ass opponent,” it has nothing to do with the pair’s differing level of competition, Perry insisted. “It’s just facts. Saturday night, it’s how I stack up against him. It’s how he stacks up against me. It has nothing to do with anybody we’ve ever fought before on either side.”
“Any man can win when they step in there. But uh-uh,” said Perry, clearly not a believer in Gall’s chances. “On Saturday night, it’s just me versus him, him versus me.”
Asked if he was happy and in a good place heading into his fight this weekend, Perry was… classic Mike Perry. “I’m happy with telling all you losers to go f*ck yourselves. That makes me happy. I might not necessarily be talking to you. If that offends you, you must be a loser. You must be going to f*ck yourself. Because if it doesn’t pertain to you, then it shouldn’t affect you, right?”
Watch the full UFC on ESPN 12 media day scrum with Mike Perry above.
