Mike Perry is currently in promoter mode ahead of Dirty Boxing 2 this Saturday in Miami, but that doesn’t mean he can’t get some work in with a former UFC middleweight champion.
Ahead of Dirty Boxing’s second official event, the BKFC star took a trip to Las Vegas and ended up training at Xtreme Couture, where he shared a hard round of sparring with Sean Strickland.
“We’ve talked about it a few times and I went out of my way to make it happen,” Perry told MMA Fighting. “I had to go to Vegas. Obviously he’s the big name and ‘Platinum’s’ got his own name, his own power going on, but that was kind of my choice to make and I made sure I wrote him and contacted him and we talked. I sent him my number, he hit me up and [he’s] such a great guy.
“Sean Strickland was trying to get me to ride dirt bikes and I shoot guns out there in the desert of Las Vegas and I just didn’t have the time, but I could stop by. You guys got sparring at 10 a.m. on this day? OK, I’ll be there.”
Dirty Boxing 2 is headlined by ex-UFC heavyweight Jairzinho Rozenstruik making his promotional debut against Power Slap and BKFC veteran Devon Schwan.
Perry helped co-create Dirty Boxing as a reflection of his non-stop, pressure-heavy style of fighting. “Platinum” certainly showed that acumen in his five-minute brawl with Strickland.
“I showed up, I went, I did some warmups. I did a round with someone else, and then I did a round with Sean—who’s very big by the way,” Perry said. “He’s got, at least, 35 pounds on me and it was nice to see his his style and how he is and and feel some of those punches. Obviously that’s a Platinum pressure style that I had to use to get myself close to him to even try to make contact.
“Sean was very defensive and I can make you very tired just by blocking a lot of your punches, or taking some of them right on the forehead. When I’m in that type of shape, plus elevation in Las Vegas, it’s not something I prepared myself for. I just showed up at the gym and did it, a five-minute round with Sean Strickland.”
As far as Perry’s fighting career, he says there are things in the works, but nothing to announce quite yet. Perry admits he’s frustrated sitting on the sidelines for so long with nearly 14 months having passed since he last competed in the BKFC ring, and approaching a year since his loss to Jake Paul in the boxing ring.
Perry is used to fans throwing negative comments his way and says he received some following his spar with Strickland. Perry’s response? Get in there with Strickland yourself and see what happens.
“Obviously, he’ll work with you probably, because most people don’t want to go for Sean Strickland for five minutes, and if they did, we would see what would happen to him,” Perry said. “Any of those punches that I had to take just to roll off the shoulder would have dropped a lot of folks that are in the comments talking. But I wanted to give you guys the entertainment and show you guys, and it was cool to spar Sean, man. I like his capabilities.
“Imagine if I have the cardio to go three, five-minute minute rounds with him? That pressure of me blocking those punches with my forehead. I’m going to make you so tired, you’re going to look for a way out. I don’t care who you are. And Sean will put you out and I’ll put you out too.
“So don’t be hating and I’m out here elevating. I’m lifting people up.”
