Jake Paul's former sparring partner Mike Perry wants to meet him again in a legitimate bare-knuckle fight.
Perry was a fan favourite ex-UFC fighter before leaving the promotion last year and moving into bare-knuckle boxing where he has beaten Julian Lane and most recently Michael 'Venom' Page. He also defeated veteran professional boxer Michael Seals in a Triad combat fight on Triller, which counts on his bare-knuckle record.
Paul and Perry have history together after sparring last year in the lead-up to the YouTube star's bout with Ben Askren. The fight was Paul's third as a professional and fourth ever, symbolising a move away from facing fellow social media celebrities and basketball players into bouts against legitimate fighters, albeit with backgrounds in different combat sports.
The pair worked together for eight rounds, giving differing accounts of how the action went. Paul claims that he came out on top, and has released a video in which Perry appears to admit as much straight after the session, while the ex-UFC star believes that they had a much closer session.
Now Perry wants a rematch in the bare-knuckle squared circle, although he admits that he'd be happy to go back to professional boxing, where he has a 0-1 record, if he needs to. " Jake Paul you need an opponent," Perry said in his in-ring interview after upsetting the odds against Page in London on Saturday. "You need the money fight, I'm the real money fight. Maybe I'll put the pillows back on if you're too scared to get in here."
Paul appears to have ruled out Perry, however, telling fans that his next opponent will have a winning professional record when he returns in October. The social media star had first been planning to face Tommy Fury, who is 8-0, and then Hasim Rahman Jr who is 12-1 on August 6, but both were cancelled due to various issues.
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In April last year following Paul's first round knockout of Askren, Dustin Poirier suggested that he fight Perry in his next outing. Paul responded by declaring that "he was light work", before explaining that Perry had told him "you kicked my a**" and instead calling to fight Poirier.
Perry responded in a tweet saying: "I was asking Jake Paul and his team to help me be great. We sparred six rounds. The fifth and the sixth rounds were my best rounds. He caught me at first then I made the adjustments. Showed up to spar just me my girl and my baby."
Fans then mocked him for struggling with Paul, who would go on to beat former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley twice including one thudding knockout. He hit back by adding: "Man you guys are unreal, I should beat him easily?
"Smh [shaking my head], the dude can box. He has a great team and he punched me in the face a few times and I started to get him back as it progressed. I'm talking about him cuz [sic] they brought me up. How do y'all live with yourselves?"
