Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight-turned bare knuckle superstar Mike Perry is moving on from Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) to focus exclusively on mixed martial arts—at least for the next few years.
BKFC President David Feldman recently suggested Perry was preparing to pursue another opportunity despite the two sides remaining in contact. “Platinum” has now confirmed that his highly successful bare-knuckle run is over.
“It’s good to get that out. I kind of had some feelings about it,” Perry told Yahoo Sports today. “It’s like the ‘BK cheat code,’ man. That bare-knuckle stuff is like a cheat code, I guess. Those two-minute rounds, I was good at it. It was fun. I made some noise doing it, and I’m ready for another challenge. So, I think MMA is in my foreseeable future, and I’m going to give it my best shot.”
However, Perry has not competed inside the BKFC ring since stopping Stephens in Oct. 2025.
The 35-year-old returned to MMA for the first time in five years this past May, battering Nate Diaz en route to a second-round doctor stoppage at MVP MMA 1. Perry returned three months later against late-replacement Brandon Jenkins at Duel: Arena, but suffered a shoulder injury and lost via first-round technical knockout (watch highlights).
Despite that disastrous setback, Perry remains committed to giving MMA another serious run.
“I kind of did my thing over there, and now it looks like we’re going a different way,” Perry said. “I think it’s gloves for me in fighting for at least two years.”
Perry declined to reveal where he will compete next, but teased that he is preparing to give a new opportunity “a good shot.” A return to MVP MMA would make sense, especially after his high-profile victory over Diaz on Netflix — although earlier this year he said he would like to return to the UFC.
With Perry returning to MMA, he is probably the biggest free agent on the market; the question is who is going to sign him.
R.I.P. Perry vs. Till, though.
