UFC veteran turned Bare Knuckle boxer Mike Perry revealed he declined a fight with the son of a legendary boxer on the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul undercard.
Despite having both Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in support, the undercard for the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul boxing event on Netflix needs some serious name-power; and fans were surprisingly close to seeing UFC icon Mike Perry scrap it out with a legendary boxing family.
Mike Perry reveals he declined fight on Netflix with legendary boxer’s son
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on the latest episode of The MMA Hour, former UFC fighter turned Bare Knuckle prizefighter Mike Perry shared that he had actually been offered a spot on the undercard for Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul.
That event is scheduled to go down from the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on July 20 and will be streamed exclusively via Netflix – however, despite being offered an enormous name, Perry revealed that the pay just wasn’t good enough:
“There were some things on the table with that and the pay wasn’t incredible, especially considering the opponent, a very experienced boxer.”
“Obviously, I was like ‘Oh I’m interested to be on the Mike Tyson Netflix card to get that exposure against this certified, professional boxer but the money [wasn’t right].”
When pressed by the fan-favorite journalist, Perry shared that the potential opponent was none other than former WBC middleweight king Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, son of the three-division world champion Julio Cesar Chavez.
Chavez Jr is 38 years old and holds a professional boxing record of 53-6, with his last bout coming back in December 2021.
“Then there was another option, and I could only pick one of them,” continued Perry, who noted that the alternative “had more money, and it would possibly open more doors.”
“Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, that would have been cool but that’s not happening.”
Bare Knuckle boxing superstar open to facing Caleb Plant
Yet Chavez Jr wasn’t the only professional boxer on Perry’s mind, as he also teased a potential bout with former IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant.
“That would have been cool too,” said Perry on the possibility of facing the former champion, “but definitely not for the money that they were talking– that money was way down and would need to come way up if it’s a Caleb Plant.”
“Millions and millions those guys get – I would love to face Caleb Plant in a boxing match but the numbers are way low.”
Perry later acknowledged that when it comes to a big-money fight against a world championship-level boxer, it’s not his side letting the fans down: “I’m not fighting a Caleb Plant or a Julio Cesar Chavez Jr because they’re not coming to the table with a real offer.”
“I was in London and this boxer does an interview with me, said you’ve priced yourself out – uh hello, in two weeks I’m set to make a million dollars fighting Eddie Alvarez.”
“With what my contract is sitting at right now, these other people need to match or beat that in order to get me over there because I could just continue to fight for Bare Knuckle.”
A reminder that for his last fight in Bare Knuckle, Perry reportedly earned the same payout as Francis Ngannou for his UFC heavyweight title defense.
Mike Perry demands Jake Paul release footage of their sparring session
Whilst Perry won’t be featured on the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul undercard, the combat sports star will likely be in attendance on July 20, having previously sparred with the young American social media star back when he was still a UFC fighter.
In fact, Perry recently requested that Paul release the footage of the two training together, in which the Bare Knuckle fighter apparently walked through Paul’s best punches with an evil look in his eyes:
“Six rounds of training, sparring, fighting: Me putting on pressure, taking a couple of hits, taking some really good hits from Jake – he can crack from the outside.”
“But you know what you would see? You’d watch him punch me as hard as he could and then I smile and keep coming forward, and he cracked inside a little bit like ‘Damn, what do I got to do?!’”
Perry stated that the training footage was taken just one week before his UFC clash with Daniel Rodriguez, just as he was starting to cut down his weight.
“We both were working, it would be nice because he’s released footage before and I guess he’s 230lbs now; well, maybe I could be 205lbs at the max unless I work on it for like a year.”
Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson takes place on July 20, exclusively on Netflix.