Jake Paul and Mike Perry engaged in a heated verbal exchange during a video conference on The MMA Hour, ahead of their scheduled eight-round cruiserweight boxing match on July 20, with both fighters confident in their abilities and eager to prove themselves in the ring.
Jake Paul and Mike Perry won’t meet in the ring until July 20. But they wasted no time getting into a verbal war during a shared video conference on The MMA Hour on Wednesday.
The scheduled eight-round fight at cruiserweight (up to 200 pounds) has Perry putting on 10-ounce gloves. He’s spent the last few years crushing his opposition in bare-knuckle fighting at BKFC. Despite his overall experience edge across bare-knuckle and MMA, Perry still sits as a decided underdog heading into the fight.
Even so, he’s more than ready to see what Paul has for him.
“I know Mike Tyson says everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face but I like getting punched in my face,” Perry said. “So my plan is coming together nicely.”
Paul could only laugh at that statement. Especially the part about enjoying getting punched in the face because he doesn’t really see that as the point of high-level boxing.
“That’s because you’re a f*cking idiot,” Paul fired back. “What makes me good at fighting is I don’t like getting punched in the face and I practice not to. That’s what I’m going to teach you in the sport of boxing, you little bitch.
“This is not bare-knuckle. Not a bunch of old MMA fighters just running around punching each other bare-knuckle like some f*cking hooligans. I’ll show you a real sport.”
The fight between Paul and Perry comes a few years after they actually engaged in a sparring match when Paul was preparing for an upcoming bout. He asked “The King of Violence” to go a few rounds in the ring.
At that stage, Paul was still early in his boxing career. He often referenced that session as a way to build confidence as a professional fighter.
“I was still just learning boxing, probably in my second year of boxing,” Paul said. “Worked him all five rounds when I was [at the gym] and now it’s going to be even crazier July 20. That’s why I know I’m going to be able to knock him out because I’m just a completely, completely different fighter. I already beat his ass in sparring and made him my son and he’s even admitting that. He’s saying he has a plan but we don’t believe it. We just don’t believe it and on July 20, I’m going to show the world the sparring session live.
“You know what happened. OK, Mike, you know what happened. I don’t need to sit here and talk about it.”
Perry has a much different recollection, especially considering that the sparring actually lasted for six rounds rather than the five that Paul referenced.
“First of all, it seems I hit him hard enough because he was ducking and running that whole six rounds,” Perry said. “So it seems when I made him duck into my uppercut, he must have forgot that last round. Because he had an eight-round fight coming up and they told me after the fifth going into the sixth, ‘Hey Mike, this will be the last round.’ Rounds 1 and 2, he hit me with a good sniper right hand. I smiled in his face and kept putting the pressure on him. The next four rounds was me smothering him and punching him in his face and making him duck into my uppercuts. So he must have forgot that sixth round.
“He quit on the sparring early because he knew where it was headed. Rounds 7 and 8, that’s where I’m looking to put him on the plate, put his head on the skillet.”
On paper, Perry is one of the toughest challenges of Paul’s entire career considering he’s been tearing through opposition in bare-knuckle fighting. Unlike some of Paul’s previous opponents, Perry is still very much in the prime of his career at 32.
Paul’s previous wins over MMA stars came against fighters who were either not primarily known as strikers like a pair of encounters with ex-UFC champion Tyron Woodley or he took on an older legend like Anderson Silva, who was 47 when Paul defeated him in boxing.
None of that seems to bother Paul, who explained why he took the risk of this upcoming fight with a previously scheduled showdown against Mike Tyson moved to Nov. 15.
“I’m on a tear,” Paul said. “I’m not slowing down for anybody. If people want to delay fights, I’ve got to get my experience in the ring. I love fighting. I love going under the bright lights and I love putting on shows for the fans and I will become champion but to do that, I need experience. Mike Tyson is an absolute killer and I do want to face another absolute killer.
“Don’t get it wrong; I think Mike Perry’s funny and stuff; it’s entertaining but he is a savage and I do respect him as a fighter … hopefully, Mike Perry can last and give me a good eight rounds but we’ll see what happens.”
Perry promised that his purpose in taking the fight isn’t necessarily built around ruining Paul’s plans to move forward with his matchup against Tyson but wants to expose the 9-1 boxer as a fraud in the ring.
“You’ve been fighting these cab drivers and these f*cking fat pieces of shit,” Perry shouted. “You think that you’re going to do anything to a real f*cking man like me; you lost your mind! If you punch me in my face, I’ll smile and hit you back multiple times.”
“He’s tricked the world into thinking he’s fantastic,” Perry continued passionately.”I’ve been doing this shit for long time; took hard long road… I’m looking show everybody what real fighter is.”
Paul scoffed at that remark.”Everyone clip that once beat ass then take edit then go clip knocking f*ck out,” Paul said.”Scene.”
It’s safe say, Perry doesn’t buy into Paul’s power or suggestion he’s gonna score knockout….