Mike Perry has had several prominent names in the mixed martial arts community serve as his corner in fights before, but he has since switched up who he allows to join him come fight night. In June, Perry opted to have girlfriend, Latory Gonzalez, be his sole corner-person in his fight against Mickey Gall at UFC on ESPN 12: Poirier vs. Hooker. The decision dominated the headlines, but it was ultimately one that benefited Perry as he walked away with an unanimous decision win over Gall.
Perry praised Gonzalez and her cornering, saying it was “perfect” and he will be looking to keep her in that role for his next fight against former welterweight champion, Robbie Lawler at UFC 255. There will be a twist, however. Perry posted on social media that he would be giving “whoever gives him the most money” a spot in his corner, which has already been met with a lot of offers. One of those offers came from none other than UFC middleweight contender, Darren Till, who has a history with Perry despite never fighting one another.
While having Till corner Perry seems somewhat outlandish, it does have some benefit to it as UFC fighter turned color commentator Paul Felder believes. When asked about his thoughts regarding Till and his offer to corner Perry, Felder told media in Abu Dhabi that it was honestly a good idea, but it comes down to Perry and what he thinks as far as his corner goes.
“Ultimately, it’s up to him, right? It’s up the fighter,” said Felder (video by MMA Fighting). “Whoever they want to have in there, as long as they fill out all the paperwork and do their thing, I mean. That’s his decision. He’s a guy that maybe isn’t going to listen to them anyway, right? He’s just going to do his own thing and I don’t mean that disrespectfully. Some guys are just going to ride off of their emotions and their instincts in the Octagon and Mike is definitely one of those guys.”
Felder and Perry have met in the Octagon before, at UFC 226, where the latter was being cornered by the head coaches of JacksonWink MMA, Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn at the time. Perry went on to defeat Felder by split decision, and Felder gave credit to his then-corner for helping Perry put on such a performance.
Felder suggests Perry could put on another one of those performances if he has someone like Till in his corner to give him advice as it pertains to the fight, but is unsure Perry will take Till up on his offer.
“When he fought me, he had a good corner,” said Felder. “He was out at Jackson’s and Winklejohn and had Frank Lester in his corner and that was who he was working pads with and he listened. They were yelling out certain code words and he was following those, so even though maybe it was frustrating him to do that, it beat me and he had a good performance. He was more technical I feel in that fight than we’ve seen him in other fights, so I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen if he gets — If he gets Darren Till, it might be the best case scenario for him.
“Hopefully Darren is serious and chucks out that cash, but I don’t see Mike letting that happen.”
Perry fights in November and it appears he does not have his corner situation settled yet, so who knows what will happen.
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