Mick Terrill initially came to Miami for a more leisurely trip where he would do a bit of commentary at BKB 58, but he is now fighting the sport’s most dominant heavyweight for his strap. On August 29, Terrill takes on Gustavo Trujillo and has a chance to regain the heavyweight crown he never lost inside of the ring.
The multi-promotion champion is an ardent family man as well and when asked if he is the toughest granddad of all time, Terrill said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I’m not sure about the toughest one, but I might be up there [laughter].”
Terrill has previously mentioned that when you’re at a certain level it’s not about necessarily asking the name of your opponent, you’re just down to fight whoever. When asked if this fight embodies that in the biggest way considering the caliber of Trujillo, Terrill stated
“Yeah, we have a saying in our gym. It’s anyone, anytime, anywhere. When the fight come up, I seen the fight come up, I actually pursued it. That that was it. Anyone, anytime, anywhere.”
BKB 58
Touching on the timeline from learning of Mark O’Neill’s visa issues to becoming the new fighter to step up and vie for BKB gold, Terrill said
“Well obviously I’m 6 weeks away from another fight. So I just really started me fight camp and then it was in the morning. I was actually leaving to come to Miami. I [had] seen that Mark had visa issues. So I text straight away, would have been middle of the night for the Americans. But I said I’m on my way. Do you want us to bring me me kit? They weren’t replying. I went I’ll bring it in anyways, just in case. Then by the time we flew from Newcastle to Heathrow London, I was on the phone to them then saying, “I’ll take that fight if you want.” Then luckily they give us it.”
Mick Terrill was previously the BKB champion in the more compact square ring. When asked what it was fighting in the Mighty Trigon, Terrill noted that
“I didn’t notice anything different. I think as long as you can pivot and you can turn and move, I think you should be okay. Obviously, you’re going to get someone that strong might pin you on the rope and then you’re going to find a little bit of difficulty. But I think apart from that, it was big enough.”
BKB Miami
When the inquiry was brought up regarding how long Gustavo Trujillo has been on his radar for, Terrill stated
“I think it was when I was going to be fighting Lorenzo Hunt and he had previously knocked out Lorenzo. So you take a close eye of him then and really, I was watching to see what he done to to knock Hunt out. To try and replicate, to get the same result. But I end up knocking Hunt out myself in a different style. But I took notice of him then.”
With both of these BKB Miami warriors having finishes of Lorenzo Hunt, who is someone that BKFC touts as their number one pound-for-pound fighter, the idea that the winner of this fight could be number one pound-for-pound in the sport overall. To that notion, Terrill allowed that
“Lorenzo’s very good. He’s just not very big. I tell him that all the time, but if Lorenzo was a little bit bigger, maybe he would be. But taking nothing away from Lorenzo, he’s a very good operator. He’s just small.”
Mike Perry quips and Tom Aspinall rumblings
When Terrill fought Hunt at Knuckle Mania, at the pre-fight weigh-ins, he teased Mike Perry about his shorts and ‘Platinum’ playfully threw some punches near his face or something like that and everything like that.
Perry also is fighting on Saturday in Florida and faces his own short notice situation with Dillon Danis dropping off and Brandon Jenkins stepping in. When delving into Mike Perry’s similar kind of story this weekend, Terrill said
“Yeah, Perry’s a cool guy. I’ve got a lot of time for Mike and he’s game. In England, we call him game as a badger and he will fight anyone. Mike Perry, he’s a good operator.”
BKB’s CEO has also expressed a desire to want to co-promote with Zuffa Boxing, Matchroom, and even Golden Boy potentially. When asking the gloveless titan if anyone from those stables might interest him in terms of a possible boxing bout opportunity, Terrill stated
“Wherever the money is, I’ll be there. I don’t care who it is, where it is. Give us the money. I’m in.”
While Tom Aspinall is still technically contracted to the UFC, there are some rumblings he might leave and the UFC heavyweight champ is also represented in a managerial sense by Matchroom figurehead Eddie Hearn. When asked what his appetite would be a UFC champion versus the top bare knuckle heavyweight to create a big UK draw domestically, Terrill exclaimed
“If the money was there, I’m in. You haven’t got to ask us twice. Usually what happens is I get a phone call, Mick, we’ve got an opponent. Before they’ve told us the opponent, I just say, I’m in. That’s me. That’s me quoting it. I’m in. I don’t care who it is. I’m big enough. I’m strong enough. I know how to defend myself. I know how to punch people. That’s enough credentials to get us in.”
BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing
Speaking to how cerebral he is and what it’s like collecting intel on someone like Trujillo who has a smaller body of work to examine being that he’s 8-0 with all first round KO’s, Terrill said
“He’s very good at hypnotizing people and that’s how I like to call it. He’ll slow the pace down to whatever he wants it and then he picks shots at will. So what he’ll do is, he’ll slow it down and he’ll come with a little flurry. He’s quite good at moving forward not getting hit and I think he’s just got like extra fast hands. Like I’m not saying he has lots of shots quickly. I’m saying his strikes are very fast.”
In a prior interview, the UK combatant mentioned that he never lost the BKB gold and feels a type of way seeing someone else hold it. Addressing the dynamics within that previous quote, Terrill stated
“I think when you get interviews sometimes you get words put in your mouth that they want you to say. Usually I would never talk like that. But they put words in your mouth and I give up that belt ages ago. It was a whole different organization then. It was a square ring. But like I say, the opportunities arose. Nobody comes into an organization and says I want to be number two. Everybody wants to be number one. Have I bit off a bit more than I could chew? Maybe, I haven’t got enough fight prep in us for the fight. But even if I was 100%, Gustavo is a hard fight. So might as well just jump in now.”
BKB
Being that he was the BKB champion in that smaller square compact ring, he was the BKFC champion as well, and if he were to win this BKB belt in the Mighty Trigon, he would have essentially won gold in all the bigger competitive arenas in the modern era. When asked if that’s of particular importance to him in a legacy sense, Terrill explained
“I never think of it as a legacy. I just carry on me day as normal. Like I’ve won everything I’ve done, but I just carry on as normal. I get up in the morning, take me dogs out, I own a gym, go to the gym, do me training, go back home. Me wife, me wife makes me tea, and we sit and watch a film. I’ve just got a really boring normal life. So like I’m not really fussed on the legacies and stuff. I just enjoy having a fight.”
When asked if the legacy is more about family and showing up as a husband, father, and even grandfather, Terrill said
“Even that. You know, when I was a kid I just wanted to be a man. Then I’m just like, now I’m a man I think, I’m a man you know what I mean? That’s all I ever wanted to be and like the father, the wife, the grandkids, the kids, that’s part of being a man. We’re all capable of doing it. You just got to get out there and do it.”
Mick Terrill: The Family Man
With his consistently calm temperament, when it was inquired about how he keeps so even-keeled and grounded, Terrill stated
“I’ve got a wife. She keeps you very grounded. You know what I mean? I’m lucky I’ve got a good family nucleus, you know? So like, some of them they get that little bit of fame and they want to go off and be superstars. Really I just want to provide for me family. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
Still wanting on BKB 60
Terrill was previously booked for a Newcastle fight before this booking but also wants to honor that October booking. When asked if his ideal series of events is winning the gold and then defending the Police Gazette diamond belt against Kamil Sokolowski in the Fall, Terrill quipped
“Of course, it is. If there’s a fight there and me two arms are attached to us, I’ll be there.”
Many boxing and MMA promotions could only dream of facilitating this kind of bout rescheduling considering the tight timeline and to that, Terrill said
“Yeah. Like like I say the previous promotion, I was fighting like once a year. Like I’m no spring chicken now and like I’m getting on. Really I’ve got a target. I want to hit a 100 fights and I’m not far off 100 fights in me caree. Like that’s the goal and I need to be fighting to hit that target.”
Looking for that one hundred fight mark
When asked how close he is to that 100-fight mark, Terrill stated
“I think I’m about four fights off and like I fought at a decent level all the way through. So, I mean [laughs], I’m saying they’re not easy fights. Some of them I’ve knocked out straight away, but like they’ve all been at a decent level.”
His reputation as a rough customer is spotlighted in the ring but he taps into his softer side in grandad mode. Expounding upon that, Terrill explained
“Yeah, we’ve got another granddaughter. It’s been a struggle for us because I’m one of four sons. So with three brothers, then I have three sons and then all me grandkids are female. So it’s hard to adjust because they want to play with horses. So like I find myself with little toy horses and stuff now. It’s like something I’ve never done before, you know? So it’s been an adjustment.”
Toy Horses and Museum Ice Cream
When asked if it’s fun dabbling with playing with the toy horses even though it’s more unfamiliar to him, Terrill said
“I think it’s the smile you see on their face. So like I’ve even had little mini cups of teas and stuff with a little tea set. But it makes them happy. So that’s life. You got to make your kids happy and your grandkids and so forth.”
Succintly touching on his mindset behind being playful in this kind of manner, Terrill stated
“Yeah, it’s nice to be nice.”
When asked if the ideal post-fight routine is taking his grandchild to Beamish Museum, Terrill admitted that
“I do like a trip to Beamish. It’s got a great bakery and it’s set in the Victorian era. So like 1801 to 1890 or something. So it does homemade bakery, homemade fish and chips. It’s even got a little bar in there. So, you get some very good whiskey in there and it’s not a bad little trip out….I’ll go straight from the bakery straight into the 1950s diner and I’ll get myself a banana split. It’s bakery straight a banana split. It’s not a bad day.”
Journeying from middleweight to heavyweight
Being that he’s a heavyweight fighter, when asked if he has to eliminate sweets or if he can keep indulging and that’s somewhat part of the appeal fighting in that higher weight category, Terrill stated
“It’s funny you should say that. Obviously back in the day I used to fight at 185 lbs. So like I was in England it’s 85 kilo. But like as I’m getting older, I went up to heavyweight and now I’m starting to cut weight to be a heavyweight. Which I never ever thought would happen. But even I was; I come in, I was four pounds over yesterday. So I had very little tea, no water. So it’s like I never ever thought I’d cut weight to be a heavyweight.”
A prior interview saw Mick Terrill discuss how his musculature in recent years and when asked what adds to that change in physique, Terrill quipped
“I started doing weights but mainly ice cream. Eat ice cream. People call it ice cream, but it’s milk. You know what I mean? It’s what cows use to build themselves up. So plenty ice cream. Get the sweet flavor. I like a Häagen-Dazs strawberry cheesecake and if I can get loads of that, I’ll have a liter every day, mate.”
Ice Cream Sponsorship Desires and possible super heavyweight gold
Playfully mentioning that maybe a Häagen-Dazs sponsorship could someday come with BKB continuing to grow their profile, Terrill said
“Well, if I can get a Häagen-Dazs sponsor, I’ll be over the moon, mate. I mean, I’ll be like a beached whale, but [laughter] I’ll be over the moon.”
Jokingly quipping about BKB’s as of yet unestablished super heavyweight title and how maybe the former BKFC and BKB champ could add that presently fictitious title to his resume, Terrill stated
“Is there a super heavyweight? Is it?”
Revealing that there was some playfulness transpiring there, the United Kingdom standout again showed his gamesmanship within combat, as Terrill joked
“I was going to say I’m in.”
