There was no talk about a spar – or spa, depending on your interpretation of Mike Perry – when “Platinum” and longtime frenemy Darren Till ran into each other backstage at the Misfits PRIME boxing card.
Instead, Perry and Till chopped it up in a friendly and kind of intense way, facing off for cameras and agreeing to fight.
Check out the exchange below.
“It’s my nemesis,” laughed Till as he playfully tussled with Perry. “I’m bigger now, lad.”
Perry and Till’s unique relationship stretches back to 2017, when the two both fought as welterweights in the UFC. Till called out Perry after beating Donald Cerrone, which prompted Perry to charge the cage and verbally return fire.
The two had a hilarious interaction outside a UFC host hotel in 2018 where Till mistook Perry’s invitation to spar to one for a trip to the spa. They wound up sparring instead, and both had their stories of what took place.
Since then, they’ve exchanged playful and sometimes intense banter over the internet. But after their exit from the UFC, they’ve both narrowed in on an actual fight. Till, a one-time welterweight title challenger, was released by the UFC in March on a three-fight skid and vowed to return. But talk of a boxing match for the U.K. star lingered, and Perry always appeared an option.
Perry, in Manchester as a backup for Dillon Danis, didn’t get to fight. Paul manhandled the Conor McGregor teammate over six rounds en route to a bizarre DQ win. But Perry may just have set up his next bout if he and Till can come to an agreement.