Mike Perry believes a potential fight against Conor McGregor in the BKFC ring could actually happen if everything falls into place.
Currently, the face of BKFC is set to face Jeremy Stephens with Perry’s King of Violence title on the line in the main event of BKFC 82, which takes place Oct. 4 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
During the BKFC 82 press conference, promoter David Feldman said that McGregor wasn’t able to make it because he was preparing himself to face the winner of the Perry vs. Stephens
matchup. Perry was asked if a fight with McGregor – who is currently under UFC contract – could actually happen.
“Yeah, Conor’s done great promoting with the company,” Perry told MMA Fighting while promoting Friday’s DBX 3 event in Miami. “I’m very happy to have been involved and had brought him in the ring, back in April [2023], and to get to fight him, for him to be able to get back in the ring again… and I get it because I wasn’t getting a fight. Jeremy was like, ‘Oh, that’s why he hasn’t been booked, because they can’t get the right fight. No one wants to accept the fight, the right people don’t want to accept or whatever.’ But once I really dug in and got on my diet real hard, I mean, they were telling me all year I was going to fight, but maybe I wasn’t committing myself properly, and I just feel like with good faith, I started wanting to be my best self regardless of the competition.
“Once I got in line and I did that for a couple of weeks, the calls just came, and then we got booked, and to fight Conor would be incredible because I know that he does get the itch, and I know he’s very busy and he’s put himself in a great place in life where he doesn’t need to fight. But you can see the desire that he has.”
McGregor is one of the co-owners of BKFC and is also a former two-division UFC champion, as well as the biggest star in the history of the sport. “The Notorious” hasn’t competed in over four years since suffering a nasty leg injury in a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. McGregor was booked for his long-awaited return against Michael Chandler in the main event of UFC 303 in June 2021, but McGregor withdrew due to an injury. The Irish star has dealt with quite the rollercoaster ride since his past fight, including legal troubles, and trying to run for President of Ireland, but has been teasing that he wants to compete on the UFC’s proposed White House card in July 2026
Since leaving the UFC, Perry has found incredible success with BKFC – which includes stoppage victories over former UFC champs Luke Rockhold and Eddie Alvarez, along with a victory over current UFC fighter Michael Page. If “Platinum” can put Stephens away and do it in style, Perry sees no reason why a fight with McGregor can’t happen.
“There’s something that interests him about bare knuckle, other than the fact that other big names in the fight game – whether it be boxing or MMA – they look at bare knuckle and they’re like, ‘I don’t really wanna do that,’” Perry explained. There’s real, real big money in it. And for Conor to come get a huge money offer on the table, against the top bare-knuckle guy like myself, I think it would just be fun for all parties involved.
“Everybody knows Conor’s got good hands. I mean, Eddie landed some shots on me. I don’t know, he was a little bouncy that night. He was moving [well] at that weight class. Conor toasted Eddie, no problem, that night in the UFC [for the lightweight] title to double champ it.
“I think we’re in for a good fight on Oct. 4. That’s what matters right now, and I’m going to keep building myself up, and if I make enough noise, and put on a great enough show and performance. I think the possibilities of Conor coming in and fighting could be very real, and we just take it a day at a time.”