Mike Perry still hasn’t given up on fighting Darren Till.
For the past few years, Perry and Till have sporadically traded barbs with one another, angling for an eventual fight. Things appeared to be moving closer to reality in March when Till received his release from the UFC, but thus far, the fight has not come to fruition. Instead, Perry is scheduled to return to BKFC on Dec. 2 against former UFC champ Eddie Alvarez. But once that’s done, “Platinum” says he and Till are still on a collision course.
“I’m thinking [it will happen in 2024],” Perry said on The MMA Hour. “They’re working on it. I know a lot of people behind the scenes are working. I’m locked in with BKFC, he doesn’t want to do that. Maybe my own promotion possibilities, Misfits is talking about it.”
Till has been adamant that he’s not interested in moving to bare-knuckle boxing, meaning if the bout happens, it will likely come in a traditional boxing setting.
That’s fine by Perry who even admits that boxing is better for him than an MMA fight would’ve been had they settled up years ago.
“I think we both had to grow and to mentally — we knew that we wanted to be the best versions of ourselves,” Perry said. “We had to go through these trials and tribulations. I was pretty green in the UFC. All I did was just fight. I had no game plan, I just fought. For MMA, I had no plan on how to beat certain styles and things like that. I thought people would just meet me in the middle and we would just bang it out.
“That’s just not how it is. It works better for me in boxing. He doesn’t want to bare-knuckle box me — he gives me my credit there. We just want to fight because I want to punch him for things he’s said in the past, but he has grown up a lot as well as I have.”
The Perry-Till feud dates back to when both men were rising up the UFC’s welterweight rankings, but escalated over the years as the attacks became more personal. Till at one point created a website, MikePerryIsABum.com, which directed to videos of Perry getting knocked out in boxing. Till also made some unsavory comments about Perry’s girlfriend at the time (now wife).
Perry acknowledges that they’ve both matured in the many years since the feud began, but says he’s still not ready to let it go.
“Yes,” Perry said when asked if he hates Till. “Because his ‘rawdog’ comments.
“He said something about rawdogging my new bird, or whatever. I want to f****** scratch his eyes out. That was several years ago, but I don’t let grudges die.”