Perry gives his thoughts on his latest BKFC win and what his thoughts were on the violent punch that sent Rockhold’s tooth flying.
It didn’t take long for Mike Perry to bust up Luke Rockhold at BKFC 41 to the point where the former model was forced to quit. Perry vs. Rockhold ended halfway through the second round, with the ref waving off the fight after Rockhold revealed his teeth had been caved in (watch the highlights here).
During a new interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, “Platinum” explained how he felt the punch that mushed his opponent’s mouth. He’s now on antibiotics because he cut his knuckle on Rockhold’s mouth with the strike.
“I felt that in my fist, his teeth went into it, for sure,” Perry said (via MMA Fighting). “I was just like, ‘Whatever that was, I can’t wait to land that again and feel that again. I wanna feel that in my knuckles again.’”
“Whatever that was that I just hit him with, and after I hit him with it, he was defensive for about 30 more seconds there, moving around, sticking, trying to move, and he was not trying to get hit with that again. And then once we broke from that clinch, he was like, ‘Dude, I can’t even bite down on this mouthpiece,’ like his teeth were all inside.”
Even though Perry was quick to declare Rockhold had ‘quit’ following the win, he now wants a bit more credit for his part in the trauma that forced the stoppage.
“They were trying to discredit me,” Perry said. “‘Oh, Luke just gave up.’ Listen, we were only two-and-a-half, three minutes into this fight, and I had already landed some significant damage that the people just couldn’t even keep up with.”
Perry pointed to a video Rockhold uploaded to his Instagram following the fight showing multiple bruises on his face and under his eyes.
“It’s boxing, but it’s meaner than boxing,” Perry added. “Because look what happens. I can just bust your teeth out of your mouth.”
Mike Perry has a point. He might not have the finesse of a lot of straight-up boxers, and even Luke Rockhold’s punches and combos seemed tighter in the first round of their fight. But his bull in a china shop approach to bare-knuckle boxing certainly seems to work. He brings the violence to his opponents, and thus far they’ve gone 0-3 against the former UFC fighter in the BKFC ring.
Now a free agent, it will be interesting to see where “Platinum” goes next.