As fans countdown to the upcoming boxing fight next weekend, Jake Paul has accepted the offer to rematch Mike Perry in Mixed Martial Arts.
Whilst it certainly is not the ‘best’ boxing event of the month, Jake Paul versus Mike Perry will likely be the most-watched fight of July – and if all goes to plan, we’ll also see ‘The Problem Child’ rematching ‘Platinum’ under a rather different ruleset.
Jake Paul accepts Mike Perry’s MMA rematch offer
Last week, Jake Paul’s manager Nakisa Bidarian appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani to tease that ‘The Problem Child’ would be open to rematching Mike Perry in MMA on one condition.
“I think if the fight makes sense, that’s absolutely something that Jake would like to do,” claimed Bidarian, noting that such a rematch would depend entirely on how much demand there was from the fans.
“Let’s see how it does, how it performs if there is an appetite for that, Jake has said to me 100 percent he would be down to do MMA with Mike Perry.”
Now, around a week later, Paul has seemingly accepted the offer to follow up the boxing fight with Perry with a clash in the PFL Smart Cage – with Paul having famously signed for the promotion back in 2023.
In a clip posted to social media by DAZN Boxing, Paul responded to his manager’s tease: “I’m down like, when I beat Mike Perry in boxing, f*** it, we could run it back in MMA.
“I want an MMA fight. I mean, the Smart Cage is literally right there,” he said, pointing over his shoulder.
“And I think once I start MMA, my wrestling background is going to come out and I think I’ll be a very dangerous MMA fighter as well.
“So, Mike Perry can get it. My hands are trisexual – they’ll try anything once and that’s MMA.”
In the same clip, Perry can be seen reacting to the comments made by Paul regarding a potential rematch in MMA – and it’s safe to say that the combat sports veteran doubts The Problem Child’s intentions are genuine.
“Cap, cap! Why not bare knuckle? Why not boxing bare-knuckle?
“I’ll take Jake’s back. Jiu-jitsu is not something that just, wrestling and Jiu-jitsu, that’s not just something that you keep in your back pocket… I don’t know, I saw Logan Paul and Paulo Costa messing around but like how serious is that.”
Perry then brought up the fact that the two have already sparred together before, and whilst that session was in the boxing ring as opposed to the MMA cage, ‘Platinum’ believes this is enough to scare Paul away from accepting such a rematch.
“I don’t let people just have easy ones on me, if we’re in the ring and we’re training or whatever.
“I asked my wife last night, I was like ‘You were there, you saw it – what did you see the day that we sparred?’ She said she saw me have him up on the ropes, she said she felt like the team was protecting him.”
Mike Perry also called out by fellow retired UFC star
Whilst Mike Perry is already a bonified legend in the UFC and a certified superstar over in BKFC, ‘Platinum’ knows that a big win over someone with the following of Jake Paul could be his ticket to mainstream superstardom.
Whether the combat sports veteran does indeed opt to return to MMA to rematch Paul or return to the world of bare-knuckle boxing, there’ll be a queue of fighters wanting to step in there against ‘Platinum’ after July 20.
In fact, Perry could already have his next BKFC fight already lined up after fellow UFC veteran Uriah Hall called him out on a recent podcast appearance.
“I would fight Mike Perry. I would dabble in bare knuckle. I would just because he was talking some s**t,” said Hall, referencing a dispute they had over some divisive comments made by Perry back in 2021.
Mike Perry vs Jake Paul is scheduled to go down on Saturday, July 20, live on DAZN PPV.