The UFC has had some gnarly broken noses since its inception in 1993, arguably none worse than Mike Perry years ago.
Out of the UFC for four years now, we saw shades of BKFC superstar Mike Perry at UFC Kansas City on Saturday a few fights before Ian Machado beat Carlos Prates in the headliner.
Nicolas Dalby, a welterweight who fought his way back to the UFC in an all-time bloodbath, is as tough as they come, fighting with a broken nose early on into his fight with Randy Brown. Dalby would eventually fall face-first in a slugfest for the ages, bloodied and battered for his first knockout loss.
Before the result, the UFC made mention of Perry’s ‘legendary’ nose injury he suffered in a 2019 bout that had the fan-favorite thinking he was going to die.
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Vicente Luque shattered Mike Perry’s nose before final bell
It was August 10, 2019, the last time the UFC visited the country of Uruguay. Perry was matched up with an unranked Vicente Luque before the Brazilian became a perennial contender.
Perry vs. Luque was a very competitive fight through three rounds with Luque bloodying Perry in the first round and in round 2, blood splattered on one of the Octagon cameras. Perry outlanded Luque in the opening round while both fighters landed the exact same amount of strikes in round 2.
Luque cracked Perry’s nose open with a flying knee in round 3 with blood immediately pouring out of Perry as Luque jumped for a guillotine submission. With 90 seconds to go, Perry fought off the choke, punching the blood-covered body of Luque as his neck was being squeezed.
Perry escaped and survived to see the distance, broken nose and all. The damaged ‘Platinum’ ultimately lost in a controversial split decision. He did, however, pocket a $50,000 bonus for ‘Fight of the Night’.
Mike Perry thought to himself in the aftermath: ‘Am I going to die?’
Perry was worried for his life following the fight, knowing two fighters had died in the boxing ring weeks prior.
“I knew he caused some damage,” Perry said of Luque’s knee on the Ariel Helwani MMA Show.
“Later, I felt the pain from them, whatever they did in the back, sticking metal rods up my nose and cranking my face around trying to get my nose back in place – I felt that later.
“That gave me headaches,” Perry added.
“With the recent deaths in boxing, I was like, ‘Damn, is my brain bleeding? Am I going to die?’ Those were real thoughts.”
Mike Perry was initially suspended from MMA for six months for his broken nose, having to get cleared by a otolaryngologist.
The UFC veteran made a pretty quick recovery and before he knew it, he was back in action four months later against Geoff Neal at UFC 245. Perry suffered a 90-second TKO loss.