Getty Mike Perry celebrates after defeating Alex Oliveira.
Ex-UFC fighter Mike Perry got into a physical altercation while making an appearance on Russian television.
Former UFC welterweight Perry moved on from the sport of mixed martial arts last year when he signed a deal with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship to explore bare-knuckle boxing professionally. At the time of his departure, “Platinum” had dropped four out of his last five outings, with a sole win coming over Mickey Gall.
He seems to have found his best form again at BKFC, where he defeated Julian Lane and Bellator veteran Michael Page in his only two bouts yet.
Perry is currently in Russia to support his friend and training partner Alex Nicholson ahead of his fight with Vagab Vagabov, according to The Mac Life. Given the relative star power of Perry, the promoters decided to bring the brawler out with several other athletes for the build-up to the clash.
For reasons unknown, Perry, who does not have a fight booked yet, got placed in a face-off with Russian MMA fighter Magomed Ismailov, who is scheduled to take on Serbia’s Aleksandar Ilic in a nearing boxing match.
Perry Gets Into a Heated Altercation on Russian TV
Perry is not one to shy away from a conflict and appeared to welcome a potential outing with Ismailov down the line. It was unclear at the start whether the two were putting on a show to entertain fans and hype the fight for Nicholson. However, things soon took a turn for the worse as the two nearly came to blows after Ismailov tried to slap Perry while trading verbal jabs at each other.
Nearby officials were quick to step in and separate them before any serious harm was done.
You can check out a short clip of the incident below.
why is Mike Perry fighting at a Russian face off????
Perry Issued a Statement After the Incident
Following the unexpected scuffle, Perry took to his Instagram stories to give his take on the matter. It seems that the incident may have sparked up from a communication gap with Perry justifying the context behind his words that almost caused an all-out brawl.
“I almost got jumped in there,” Perry said via MMA Fighting. “Luckily, people was breaking it up. But in Russia if you call someone a motherf*****, they think you’re talking about someone’s mom so then the whole team coming to get you. But in America when you say motherf***** it’s like normal words. It’s normal. I’m not talking about your mama, chill bro.”
Perry may have had a hunch that something might go sideways before traveling to Russia. When calling out Nate Diaz for a bare-knuckle fight after his exit from the UFC, Perry talked about his adventure to support his friend in a recent appearance on “The Fighter vs. The Writer.”
“The whole fighting community knows what fighting Russia means,” Perry explained.
“We’re going to one of the most dangerous countries in the world to fight one of the most dangerous men in the world and it’s me and my bro versus everyone over there.”